Recently Watched Films

[O'Grady]

Tsai Ming-Liang - Dong (The Hole) [1998]

[surfer]

Currently making my way through Kieslowski's Dekalog for the second time. Just two more to go..

Even though I've become more knowledgable regarding world cinema over the past few years, Kieslowski remains my favorite director.

[Chromosome]

The Conversation
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

[sound plague]

Scarface (De Palma, 1983) - Stupid.

yet still decidedly better than the dreadful American Gangster I watched the other night. is Denzel Washington always that bad? and I was a bit saddened/surprised to see at the end that Ridley Scott directed it, since as I was watching, I was wondering what amateur hack was responsible.

Ridley Scott has never been consistent enough to convince me he's a good filmmaker. In fact, nothing of his in the last 20 years really stands out. At least De Palma is a talented hack.

[surfer]

This Is England (Meadows, 2006) - Decent movie, the only serious reservations I have are any and all broader statements the movie was trying to make about the end of British hegemony by having lots of Faklands Isl footage (which was fine at the beginning to establish some cultural context, by the end, its tiresome and not very profound), and the use of music - serious piano and mournful strings - during some of the more serious scenes. I did like some of the other s/t choices. Ending was trite and predictable, however, most of the rest of the movie was very good, excellent acting, including an outstanding performance from the little guy Shaun, and Combo (chilling) and Milky. Great script and good cinematography. Recommended.

Great tension in this clip that Meadows carries throughout the second half of the movie: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2180841753/

[sound plague]

I think Meadows is a bloody brilliant director - he hasn't let me down yet. As for the cultural context; I didn't have the same reservations as you. I think the context was a pretty important element of the film as a whole and much more than mere establishment. The story couldn't have really occurred without the emphasis on the cultural context.
I'm in agreement with you on the acting. Excellent all round.

[Dan Warburton]

Robert Rossen, The Hustler, 1961

Was surprised how "European" I found this this time round.. pacing quite slow, great camera angles (DP Eugen "Metropolis" Schufftan would explain that). Very fine performances all round.

[Chromosome]

The Spanish Prisoner
Written and directed by David Mamet

My head just exploded.

[Dan Warburton]

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Angst essen Seele auf, 1974

[eraritjaritjaka]

cat piss - giuseppe andrews
schoof - giuseppe andrews
prelude - michael snow
wvlnt - michael snow
let me die - hoon ryoo
under construction - lee hyung-suk
may the moon rise up high - lee bo-young
the longest summer - fruit chan

documentaries:
s.p.i.t.: squeegee punks in traffic - daniel cross
prog rock britannia: an observation in three movements - chris rodley
deep crates - dedicated to the art of beatdiggin' - jeremy weisfeld
deep crates 2 - dedicated to beatdiggin' culture - jeremy weisfeld


'prelude', 'under construction', and 'the longest summer' were the highlights here.
though 'may the moon rise up' and 'let me die' both had their moments. the andrews
films were mostly just entertaining, though occasionally having a flash of brilliance.

the second deep crates documentary is the better one, with lengthy segments featuring pete rock and
the 45 king, and a whole segment on japanese dj/vinyl culture featuring resident dj's.

some screens:

s.p.i.t.: squeegee punks in traffic


under construction


may the moon rise up


the longest summer

[O'Grady]

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Angst essen Seele auf, 1974

Going to see this at the cinema later this month.

[Dan Warburton]

It may help if you see Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows just before you do, to appreciate how RWF skewed the story to his own ends so wonderfully!

[O'Grady]

I'll look into it, cheers.





Tsai Ming-liang - Ai qing wan sui (Vive L'amour) [1994]

[Dan Warburton]

Nicolas Roeg, The Man Who Fell To Earth, 1976

Hadn't seen this one since school daze and it hasn't aged well (or I haven't). The 139' Director's Cut is essential (the cut version is even more opaque), but the pace drags and the acting disappoints. Not so much Bowie, who only has to be weird / quintessentially English, but Candy Clark, who presumably only landed the part because she was going with Roeg at the time.
Soundtrack's patchy too - wonder what it would have been like if they'd used Low, which was (I understand) the original idea. Great cinematography - well, what do you expect from Roeg? - but not a patch on Performance, Don't Look Back or Walkabout.

[al jones]

Hadn't seen this one since school daze and it hasn't aged well (or I haven't). The 139' Director's Cut is essential (the cut version is even more opaque), but the pace drags and the acting disappoints. Not so much Bowie, who only has to be weird / quintessentially English, but Candy Clark, who presumably only landed the part because she was going with Roeg at the time.
Soundtrack's patchy too - wonder what it would have been like if they'd used Low, which was (I understand) the original idea. Great cinematography - well, what do you expect from Roeg? - but not a patch on Performance, Don't Look Back or Walkabout.

I agree with everything said here. Criterion apparently thinks even higher of it, having recently updated their catalog to include a Blu-Ray version.

But the worst Roeg out there is, without a fight, Bad Timing. The story and performances are bad enough, but Nic has to twist the knife a little with unsoftened shots of Art Garfunkel's bare ass. WTF.

[jon abbey]

dunno about that, I think Bad Timing captures a sense of Vienna very nicely and even Garfunkel is OK in his fish out of water role. I haven't seen anywhere close to all of his films, but I'm sure Roeg has made many worse ones.

speaking of misguided Criterions, I saw Equinox the other day. I guess it's not fair to judge it too seriously (as it was made in 1970 for $6500 by three 21 year olds), and it is kind of amusing in its ineptness (I saw the later version, not the earlier one), but not a quality film.

[al jones]

dunno about that, I think Bad Timing captures a sense of Vienna very nicely and even Garfunkel is OK in his fish out of water role.

Vienna ca. 1980? That movie is suckville, regardless of any peripherals.

[jon abbey]

well, I disagree. I even kind of wanted to hate it (I mean, Art Garfunkel as the lead), but I liked it despite myself in the end. it's ceertainly better than The Man Who Fell To Earth, IMO.

and Vienna hasn't changed too much since 1980.

[al jones]

It all depends on whether you'd rather watch Bowie semi-convincingly hack his way through a spaceman performance with fairly adequate human nature oddities falling into place or see mundane Garfunkel bore you to tears with a script and character beyond his ability to render. The latter just struck me as a very ugly film with an excess of sterility. TMWFTE is at least weird, if nothing else. I doubt I'll ever watch either flick again.

[Dan Warburton]

Mike Leigh, Life Is Sweet, 1990