Recently Watched Films

[Salty Swift]

Saw these last night....enjoyed everything, even if I did fall asleep midway through the last of this bunch



What other recent Wenders should I be watching?



Samantha Morton reminded me of Emily Watson's naivete in Breaking the Waves.



Freightening to say the least....

[franz bieberkopf]

I have no plans to see My Blueberry Nights.

good on you. it was pretty lame. and it just might malign some of his previous films a touch.

[O'Grady]

Kevin Hull - Einstein's Brain (1994)

A Japanese professor obsessed with Einstein's brain travels to America to find it. Others seem undecided on whether this is a real documentary, awkward moments abound.

[Salty Swift]

Saw this last night - continuation of Henry Fool



I've been a huge fan of Hartley's early films - Trust, Unbelievable Truth, Simple Men, etc.
Times have changed but Hartley remains his own, unique self, which is great to see.

[Jesse]

[jon abbey]

I have no plans to see My Blueberry Nights.

good on you. it was pretty lame. and it just might malign some of his previous films a touch.

is 'malign' really what you mean here?

[franz bieberkopf]

yeah i'd say so.

not drastically mind you, and i'd like to believe that i'll always enjoy a film to the best of my ability in any given moment (maybe i shouldn't? i digress.).

while the friend whom i watched this with was brutally dismissive from the get go (and hard not to be when the Norah Jones tune starts up before the opening shot), i oscillated a fair bit, and tried to remain receptive throughout. i did this precisely because i don't think this film is all that inconsistent with what he's been up to for most of his career.
as far as i can tell, the fundamental difference here was that this film was shot in America with Hollywood actors in english. stuff that i could elsewhere let slide in ostensible translation, in terms of the tone of the acting, the milieu, etc., is all the more glaring now that it's presented to me in a more familiar form.
i do think this is degrees worse than say 2046 or In the Mood For Love... but it's nonetheless clearly coming from the same place.

so if i wanted to modify my original statement, it would likely amount to my saying that maybe i shouldn't have disliked this film as much as i let on.

it's always under your nose with his work, but i don't think i articulated it for myself till now: the kinship his work seems to share with anime. there is something fundamentally graphic about Wong's work that i'd argue extends well beyond the simple visual presentation.
even if i am not so fond of his stuff, i will always respect the fact that Wong manages to distinguish his vision so well from that of many of the other big players in international film. i think i will continue to watch and give him 9 lives for that reason.

[jon abbey]

I thought that's what you meant, but I don't think that's what malign means. saying that 'it just might malign some of his previous films a touch' implies that the film itself attacks his earlier work, not that the film changes your perceptions of his earlier work.

[franz bieberkopf]

hmm... interesting. got me there. i guess it's a good thing i elaborated.

[markt]

Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)


"What was the guy so upset about? You'd think nobody was ever compared to Mussolini before."

[cleanzero]

The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser - Werner Herzog

[cleanzero]

Woyzeck - Werner Herzog

[jpeatt]

Last couple of Full length films for me:

Primer: Really great low budget american film about two computer hardware engineers who accidentally invent a time machine in their garage. Confusing as fuck, but very 'realistic', or perhaps believable is a better term. Highly recommended to anyone who likes serious science fiction.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

Las Mehninas: Ukranian film that screened at the film festival here. Really visually & sonically impressive, but very very intense film about family dysfunction & imagined posibilities of how else life could be. Comes across as more or less a cross between Gyorgy Palfy (Takidermia, Hukkle) and Tarkovsky's 'Mirror'. Lots of heavily amplified small sound, conversations at cross purposes, disorienting framing & editing.

[cleanzero]

Tenderness of the Wolves - Ulli Lommel

[markt]

Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)


Marge: "Did anyone see that new Woodsy Allen movie?"
Flanders: "You know, I like his films except for that nervous fella that's always in them."

[Yii]

Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)

[Dohol]

I kinda' cringed when my wife suggested we see this....( she's a Ben Stiller fan )


But I have to confess I'm sore from laughing.

Downey is a marvel.

[Dan Warburton]

.

[Yii]

3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977)

[kangaroo?]

3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977)

ouch. i remember feeling shell-shocked first time i saw this movie. Altman's sense of structure & storytelling has to be admired.

in comparison, these elements were pretty much what was missing from the movie i saw last night:


The Ruling Class (Peter Medak, 1972)

for the biggest part it was hillarious, really enjoyable, but the conclusion of the story (don't know about the original text, but i had problems with the way it was directed too) was much too self-important for its own good