Recently Watched Films

[diederich]

Just saw Paranormal Activity which was surprisingly good. I actively disliked it for awhile but I'm starting to think that was intentional. Taken as a whole I really liked it. And it's pretty goddamn terrifying in a way most movies like this aren't.

[leroysghost]

Just saw Paranormal Activity which was surprisingly good. I actively disliked it for awhile but I'm starting to think that was intentional. Taken as a whole I really liked it. And it's pretty goddamn terrifying in a way most movies like this aren't.

anyone have an opinion on how it compares with [Rec]? that one is the standard bearer of that genre for me.

[Dohol]

[walto]

a bit of halloween programing recorded off the tv:

Alberto Cavalcanti - Dead of Night (1945)

Wolf Rilla - Village of the Damned (1960)

unfortunately, as with some of the other storied brit horror flicks (Night of the Demon, The Wicker Man) i find myself very underwhelmed by both of these. Dead of Night is very disappointing indeed, even the ventriloquist dummy bit had only a few choice moments of enjoyment. i'm perplexed as to what people see in that one.

I don't like the ventriloquist bit either --or the ghosltly golfers (I forget the name of that comedy team). What I DO like about the movie is the "It's happening AGAIN!!" recurring nightmare architecture. The individual stories are nothing special.

I agree with you about "Village of the Damned." I'm not sure why it has the reputation as a classic. I'll take "Incredible Shrinking Man" any day.

[Dohol]

I don't like the ventriloquist bit either --or the ghosltly golfers (I forget the name of that comedy team). What I DO like about the movie is the "It's happening AGAIN!!" recurring nightmare architecture. The individual stories are nothing special.

I agree with you about "Village of the Damned." I'm not sure why it has the reputation as a classic. I'll take "Incredible Shrinking Man" any day.

"The Incredible Shrinking Man" is one of those little discussed 50's masterpieces...

I've got to see it again.

[leroysghost]

I don't like the ventriloquist bit either --or the ghosltly golfers (I forget the name of that comedy team). What I DO like about the movie is the "It's happening AGAIN!!" recurring nightmare architecture. The individual stories are nothing special.

they belabor this point too much for my liking (particularly at the end, with the distressed run through all of the tales) but you're right i would have much rather had this be the focus of the film instead of just the framing device.

today i watched two Preminger films, both very enjoyable.

Otto Preminger - Bonjour Tristesse (1958)

i like the theme song to this a lot, waaaay better than the Laura theme . Preminger smartly smooths out the inconsistent acting of Jean Seberg with the purposefully fake and stilted feel of the framing device which emphasizes the dreamy and idyllic nature of the remembrances of Seberg's character. if one didn't speak english as a first language she probably comes off looking fantastic. i can see why Godard took notice.

Otto Preminger - Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

great stuff, aside from the lame Duke Ellington cameo (whose idea was it to force that limp attempt to look cool? we get it, Stewart's character likes jazz, quit trying so hard ). the music itself is quite good though, especially at the end, very bold stuff. in a film that is all about the theatricality of the courtroom, i particularly love George C. Scott's role. he is everything Stewart's character isn't: calm, biting, sexually threatening, it makes a great contrast with Stewart's populist "every-trick-in-the-book" bluster. Scott plays the part perfectly and it makes the moment when he gets over confident and steps in the shit all the greater.

by the by...did Preminger ever make a great film that wasn't incest related? if true, that makes for a very interesting directorial motif.

[eraritjaritjaka]

Exchange Students - Nobuhiko Obayashi (1982)



The Funeral - Juzo Itami (1984)



Sweet Home - Kiyoshi Kurosawa (1989)



tenkosei - a bit silly, but great fun. some hilarious moments. the bittersweet ending sequence is quite memorable. remade by the same director in 2007, i'll have to see how that measures up.
the funeral - loved this one. not strictly a comedy, but quite hilarious. joji yuasa soundtrack also. definitely recommended.
sweet home - pretty weak offering, though it does have some decent moments (most particularly an extended gore/sfx sequence). interesting to see an early kiyoshi kurasawa horror flick.

[Dan Warburton]

Andrew Sinclair, Under Milk Wood, 1972

Better as a radio play, as was intended (Richard Burton is the perfect narrator as First Voice, but we don't need to see him lurching around the streets of Fishguard after one of his quadruple Bloody Mary breakfasts.. his presence in the film, especially the gratuitous 2M1W sex scene in the barn with some unidentified chick who is most definitely not in the Dylan Thomas original is about as sexy as her little 70s polyester trouser suit.. yeurgh). And what the f**k is Elizabeth Taylor doing as local whore Rosie Probert? (Special clause in contract: Ms Taylor insists on at least two thirty-second close-ups of those oh so famous and oh so over made-up eyes). Worth it for Thomas's amazing writing though, and for Susan Penhaligon drawing lipstick circles around her nipples (and that is in the original..).

[Jesse]

[leroysghost]

Catherine Hardwicke - Twilight (2008)

flawed, as one might expect (what little plot development there is marked by a particularly embarrassing "vampire baseball" sequence), but Kristen Stewart gives one of the most unrelentingly sexual performances i have ever witnessed. at first i thought that this must be thanks to the woman director, but Hardwicke also made that awful movie Thirteen with the repugnant Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed (whose appearance here is thankfully minor) so i think Stewart should definitely get the bulk of the appreciation for making this movie work. to give credit where credit is due however, this film does do a number of crucial things, the most important being the almost complete abandonment of the antiquated "vampires and sunlight" device. also noteworthy is the reversion to presenting sex with vampires (undoubtedly unpleasant logistically) as a purely non literal experience. in the scene where they meet for the first time, the two main characters basically have sex without touching, smartly geting the issue out of the way early on while giving the characters a reason to be tied to one another throughout the rest of the film. the movie might cave a bit to reactionary parental morality near the end (everyone ends up sexless, segregated and at the prom) but the final scene is triumphantly subversive. when was the last time you saw a young adult film that ended with an underage girl not only actively wanting sex, but also refusing to compromise and be submissive to the dominant male's wishes of chastity?

[surfer]

"vampire baseball"

[Dan Warburton]

François Truffaut, Le Dernier Métro, 1980

Delighted to find a spanking new DVD print of this for £3 in London (haha - about a tenth of the price you'd pay for it here in France). And great to see it at last - very well done tale of a theatre in Nazi-occupied Paris (before you ask, yes, it's clear Mr Tarantino knows this one.. I spotted several things the clever basterd swiped), play-within-a-film conceit (paging Jacques Rivette too, notably Paris nous appartient), superbly cast (Deneuve has done a lot of shit, but this is right up there with Belle de Jour and Repulsion for me), well directed and craftily edited. Good stuff.

[anastasia vronski]

This is England Shane Meadows
So good a film about hatred and full of love . Cute little boy Shoan and evryone else so good actors . Nice songs too.
English film maker Shane Meadows makes good cinema and Ken Loach 's the Navigators too .This is England I like
http://www.thisisenglandmovie.co.uk/#

[Jesse]

This is England Shane Meadows
So good a film about hatred and full of love . Cute little boy Shoan and evryone else so good actors . Nice songs too.
English film maker Shane Meadows makes good cinema and Ken Loach 's the Navigators too .This is England I like
http://www.thisisenglandmovie.co.uk/#

I saw a later Meadows film I didn't care for, really glad I gave This Is England a chance.
The music is, as you say Anastasia, well-suited for the rhythm of the editing. The opening montage, set to ska, of Thatcher/the privileged class and the slum kids, is bracing, exhilirating. The sentimentality is never too much. The racism is seen as insidious for being almost sub-dermal, not even apparent or conscious to the racist kids.

[franz bieberkopf]

play-within-a-film conceit (paging Jacques Rivette too, notably Paris nous appartient)

but also really really L'amour fou... an' if you haven't seen it, do. (try.) (truly fou.)

have always meant to see Le Dernier Metro... the idea of late truffaut kind of gives me the heebiejeebies, but the title is enticing.

[surfer]

This is England Shane Meadows
So good a film about hatred and full of love . Cute little boy Shoan and evryone else so good actors . Nice songs too.
English film maker Shane Meadows makes good cinema and Ken Loach 's the Navigators too .This is England I like
http://www.thisisenglandmovie.co.uk/#

I saw a later Meadows film I didn't care for, really glad I gave This Is England a chance.
The music is, as you say Anastasia, well-suited for the rhythm of the editing. The opening montage, set to ska, of Thatcher/the privileged class and the slum kids, is bracing, exhilirating. The sentimentality is never too much. The racism is seen as insidious for being almost sub-dermal, not even apparent or conscious to the racist kids.

The only problem I had with this movie was the ending, which was ham-fisted in its not-believable, over-the-top SYMBOLISM.

[Dan Warburton]

play-within-a-film conceit (paging Jacques Rivette too, notably Paris nous appartient)

but also really really L'amour fou... an' if you haven't seen it, do. (try.) (truly fou.)

Yep, that's one I'm waiting for for sure..

have always meant to see Le Dernier Metro... the idea of late truffaut kind of gives me the heebiejeebies, but the title is enticing.

Not much Metro in it at all, actually. In fact none at all except for a few old stills. But don't let that put you off!

[Dohol]

I haven't seen this in more than fifteen years..( My wife HATES Kurosowa..)


It's even better than I remembered..

[walto]

...the almost complete abandonment of antiquated "vampires and sunlight" device

...and it's replacement by the more recent and considerably more scientifically accurate "they can climb trees like squirrels even when carrying someone piggyback" conceit.

I agree with you about this: Ms. Stewart is a cutie.

[Dan Warburton]

Jonathan Demme, The Silence Of The Lambs, 1991

Has it really been 18 years? This had me on the edge of my seat first time I saw it, but didn't this time. Demme's direction feels heavy-handed (his editor could do to watch a few Hitchcocks and tighten up the timing too), Howard Shore's music is (as usual) claggy and intrusive, Foster's li'l Southern accent quickly annoying and Hopkins's "scary" way of delaying the final consonannnnnnnnt of every other word for dramatiiiiiic effeccccct has now been done to death so many times by Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) it's not scary any more. And the Fall song is nowhere near loud enough.