Recently Watched Films 2012

[Dan Warburton]

Love Ben Kingsley in that - so f**kin vicious.. about a million lightyears away from Gandhi for sure. The plot's a bit daft (why bring Ray out of retirement to do the job?), but it's worth the price of admission just to see Ray's sweaty beer belly getting baked in the Spanish sun.

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Why bring Ray out of retirement to do the job?

Sheer perversity, and also because Ben Kingsley's character is in love with the wife of Winstone's friend. But I have to agree with you, as the last part makes it plain, they don't seem to have any particular use of him. Ben Kingsley is vicious, but not as much frightening as Ian McShane (as another instance of terrifying viciousness, see James Woods in The Onion Field by Harold Becker).

[surfer]

lauren greenfield the queen of versailles

I've heard A LOT about that one, is it worth seeing?

i enjoyed it. the siegel family enjoyed it so much that they sued the director for defamation.

The husband did, right? I heard the wife is portrayed rather sympathetically. I think they're divorced now.

[Dan Warburton]

Martin Scorsese, Mean Streets, 1973

Ah, happy days when over half the budget of a movie had to spent securing the rights for the music. Worth every cent though, if only for De Niro's Jumpin' Jack Flash entry.

[Gaendaal]

Love Ben Kingsley in that - so f**kin vicious.. about a million lightyears away from Gandhi for sure. The plot's a bit daft (why bring Ray out of retirement to do the job?), but it's worth the price of admission just to see Ray's sweaty beer belly getting baked in the Spanish sun.

Don: Talk to me, Gal. I'm here for you. I'm a good listener.
Gal: What can I say, Don? I've said it all. I'm retired.
Don: Shut up.

All the sweary rants are amazing but that exchange is the film for me. Superb.

[Lao Tsu Ben]

One From The Heart - Francis Ford Coppola

I rather like the hackneyed dialogues and situations which serve as a pretext, but it is the lightning and the sets which somehow transcend the film into a grand moment of self-conscious kitsch. This is, I guess, supposed to be the filmic equivalent of a pop song, and indeed there is an entire "album" by Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle that runs through the film, commenting the action. It brings to mind films by Wong Kar-Wai, Alan Rudolph and Percy Adlon, in descending order of preference, if you see what I mean. If not, it's your loss- or not. In my opinion, worth seeking out.

[Dan Warburton]

Quite agree, Ben. And it stands up quite well to repeated viewings (I should know - it's one of the wife's favourites and it gets a spin at least once a year). Love the OST too - Jack Sheldon's trumpet solo in "I Beg Your Pardon" is fuckin' gorgeous. Meanwhile, last night's:



Olivier Assayas, Boarding Gate, 2006

Enjoyed this very much, despite its rather inappropriate title (Assayas originally wanted to call it Departed but then he found out Papa Scorsese had pipped him to the post) - especially Asia Argento's virtuoso performance. Interesting essay on it here too http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=627

[MRS]

Love Ben Kingsley in that - so f**kin vicious.. about a million lightyears away from Gandhi for sure. The plot's a bit daft (why bring Ray out of retirement to do the job?), but it's worth the price of admission just to see Ray's sweaty beer belly getting baked in the Spanish sun.

Don: Talk to me, Gal. I'm here for you. I'm a good listener.
Gal: What can I say, Don? I've said it all. I'm retired.
Don: Shut up.

All the sweary rants are amazing but that exchange is the film for me. Superb.

With the 300 fucks, etc., still my favorite is on the patio (pictured at the end of last page) between the house and pool: "No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!"

[dialectics of shit]

^ Boarding Gate is good, so thanks for the essay.



Markus Schleinzer, Michael, 2011 - Some folks I really trust when it comes to film had hyped this up, and it definitely was as good as advertised, though hype is a bit of an ironic reaction for a film this methodical, minimalist, and muted. Overall, a phrase like "the mundanity of evil" (to riff on Arendt) would make a suitable subtitle to an essay about the film. Perhaps the most refreshing (though that's a bit of a strange word to use when talking about Michael's subject(s)) and chilling aspect of the film is that it's not a demonizing portrait, but rather just a portrait. I heard someone else reduce Wolfgang's role to the titular character to a sex slave, and that's certainly a part of it, but while I don't mean to make light of the enormous cruelty and pain someone like Wolfgang's faces, I think Michael saw him more as a surrogate son. Stylistically one can definitely sense the director's indebtedness to auteurs like Seidl and Haneke (whom Schleinzer has assisted), but I have high hopes for his future.

[Dan Warburton]

Todd Rohal, The Catechism Cataclysm, 2011

DL'ed this as one of KG's monthly MoM promotional torrents, not because I particularly wanted to see it but because I thought it might improve my ratio, and, having nothing better to do (for once) last night, decided to give it a spin and wished I hadn't. Even 75 minutes can drag horribly. Absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever: a dumb plot, badly acted and sloppily filmed. Now thinking twice about watching the other Rohal film I snatched, The Guatemalan Handshake. Any fans?

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Todd Rohal, The Catechism Cataclysm, 2011

DL'ed this as one of KG's monthly MoM promotional torrents, not because I particularly wanted to see it but because I thought it might improve my ratio, and, having nothing better to do (for once) last night, decided to give it a spin and wished I hadn't. Even 75 minutes can drag horribly. Absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever: a dumb plot, badly acted and sloppily filmed. Now thinking twice about watching the other Rohal film I snatched, The Guatemalan Handshake. Any fans?

I wouldn't go as far as calling myself a fan but I liked The Catechism Cataclysm. There is clearly not a lot of money involved but it's not your average mumblecore. As it happens, I also downloaded two films from this month collection (Dance Party and The Pleasure of Being Robbed) and had a quick peek at them, and it looked irremediably bad and clichéd. At least, this one is funny, and the narration, if I remember correctly, unfurls in unexpected ways. Also, good chemistry between the two actors - actually, the reason I watched this film in the first place was Steve Little, whom I find hilarious as Danny McBride's Sancho in Eastbound and Down.

[Dan Warburton]

Ah, nice to see we can't agree on everything, Ben Have you seen Guatemalan Handshake, I wonder?

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Ah, nice to see we can't agree on everything, Ben Have you seen Guatemalan Handshake, I wonder?

No, I haven't seen it, since Steve Little isn't in it. But now that I think of it, I might if I have nothing better to do, as you put it. In fact, I agree with you on two points: plot is dumb and it is sloppily filmed. However...

[Dan Warburton]

As our mutual friend Pauline K is such a fan, I thought I'd give this one another spin tonight --



Brian De Palma, Carrie, 1976

No apologies for putting up a pic of Piper Laurie (and no disrespect to Sissy Spacek who does a bloody good job heh heh) - her performance here is stunning. Enjoyed it (funny, I don't seem to remember liking it as much last time, but puhlease Walto don't embarrass me by linking to what I wrote about it back when..) - from Travolta's expression when Chris goes down on him in the car to the shimmering reflections in the bucket of pig blood before it falls.. it's a classy job, and Papa Hitch would have been proud of godson Brian. He might even have excused Pino for ripping off Bernard's Psycho knife stab violin glisses too, come to mention it (I've been pretty critical of Donaggio's soundtracks for De Palma elsewhere, but this one worked just fine tonight - again, not what I thought last time I watched it). Hope the hairdresser who did Tommy's angelic curls got an Oscar too.

[presquepartout]

The husband did, right? I heard the wife is portrayed rather sympathetically. I think they're divorced now.

yeah, the husband sued. he is portrayed rather negatively in the film, though no one in the family received a favorable treatment. the wife is shown to be rather naive, of both how terrible her husband is and of their situation.

on a related note, i was in williamsburg, va this past weekend, and the place was crawling with westgate employees. my girlfriend went to william & mary, and she doesn't remember their presence when she was there a five years ago.

[bryan]

Sound of Noise (2010)

The first scene induced cringes as it appeared similar to one of those Chili's commercials where everyone's playing objects in their environment. In other words, the noise here is of the cute type. Anarchist noise terrorists play the city in increasingly elaborate noise-heists, turning the incidental into music. The only real sonic anarchy is when the tone deaf fascist cop smashes up a bunch of instruments. How about that? The anarchist noise terrorists are, in the end, one-upped by the Man. Don't let the ski masks fool you, these aren't The New Blockaders. They are slaves to the rhythm, the grid, the roller rink bossa nova drum machine that, for the ending, renders the anarchist percussionists impotent.

Oops, I meant to mention that I kinda liked it. Cute movie.

[Dan Warburton]

Emmanuelle Bercot / Fred Cavayé / Alexandre Courtes / Jean Dujardin / Michel Hazanavicius / Jan Kounen / Éric Lartigau / Gilles Lellouche, Les infidèles, 2012

Amusingly, in a country where men still like to pretend they're irresistible Latin lovers and where marital infidelity has been a staple of theatre and literature for centuries, this film à sketches has had something of a rough ride since it came out earlier this year, starting with the removal of the original posters for the film (of course, censorship doesn't work: Google Image the title and you'll see them all over the place). Jan Kounen's segment, which Lellouche is lured by Mélanie Doutey to an isolated house in the middle of a forest and beaten to a pulp by her bodybuilder husband, was cut (judged to be too disturbing and surreal, not as "realistic" as the others), but it is in the Blu-Ray extended version. Unlike another sketch showing Dujardin getting busy with his mistress in New York as the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, which you're not likely to see very soon (I can just hear Harvey Weinstein growling "You leave that in and you can kiss your Oscar goodbye, Jean boy"). As you might expect, it's trashy stuff, but the dialogue is well written and believable, even flirting with Rohmer in "La bonne conscience" and Bergman in "La question", and the acting is solid. Not as good as Ophuls' La Ronde or Risi's I mostri, but could probably stand alongside Woody Allen's Everything You Always To Know About Sex. Then again, with these guys on board, it's probably safer stand behind.

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Hated the trailer of this. There was no way I was going to watch it. Hated the vulgarity. I didn't know I was such a priggish person (am I really? As I said, I very much like Eastbound & Down in which the vulgarity turns into something almost heroic). I don't know whose fault it is, though.

[Dan Warburton]

Well, a student of mine (who's director of media planning at RTL) gave me the Blu-Ray.. I certainly wouldn't have bought it myself Last night it was a toss up between that and Bela Tarr, and the Turin Horse lost.

[Lao Tsu Ben]

I would probably have chosen Les Infidèles myself. The Turin Horse is a bore (Other Bela Tarr I like, don't take me wrong).

This is what I watched last night:



The Winner - Alex Cox, 1996

Ok, Alex Cox said he didn't want his name attached to the film. But the Pray for Rain soundtrack, which was so important to him, seem to have been preserved in the copy that, luckily, I possess. In Cox's movies, there is always a sense that the world is coming to an end, giving way to a kind of apocalyptic lyricism which seems very much in favor nowadays (see Richard Kelly's films, Herzog's My Son, My Son, what have ye done - a great film, as I've already said) - that is something I like. Anyway, there is no doubt this is his movie, not his best perhaps, but an interesting take on a convoluted noir plot, with hints at his previous films (are those three guys a variation on the Three Kings, as in Three Businessmen).