Recently Watched Films

[leroysghost]

whipping Romi Schneider's bare back with a tree branch

i just put this in my netflix queue for this reason


David Ross - The Babysitters (2007)

brilliant. Katherine Waterston pulls off the remarkable task of not only giving the impression of a character that is both naive and adult (almost wizened at times), but making such a character absolutely believable. in a movie that is all about showing the maturity of the teenage girls in the film and the immaturity of the adult males they encounter i don't think there is another actress alive that could have made this one work. good support all around as well, particularly from eternal child John Leguizamo.

[leroysghost]

Gary Walkow - Crashing (2007)
Oren Peli - Paranormal Activity (2007)

awful. insipid. complete wastes of time.

[leroysghost]

[img]http://auteurs_production.s3.amazonaws.com/stills/5637/Film_434w_ClasseTous.jpg[/img]
Claude Sautet - Classe tous risques (1960)

superb, Sautet's feeling for the characters distinguishes this one from Becker's kindly anthropology and Melville's perfect dioramas. the sympathy is particularly interesting here because, although Sautet didn't know it at the time, the main character was based on a notorious gestapo collaborator.


Jean-Pierre Melville - Un flic (1972)

wow, Delon and Deneuve together. it's a wonder that they don't ice over when they kiss! i rather like this flick, all the Melville favorites are here: nightclubs, trains and mirrors galore. very playful too. take the scene where Delon, Deneuve and Crenna have a three way stare down, or the one where Delon is looking into a mirror and sudenly opens a door into a room where the ceiling is full of mirrors! some interesting inversions as well, with Delon playing a cop and the thieves stealing drugs from gangsters, not to mention the model train and helicopter used in the heist scene (most of Melville's films are models to some extent, this one just makes it literal). unfairly maligned for some reason, i think this one is on par with the rest of the man's work.

[Dan Warburton]

Ron Shelton, Dark Blue, 2002

Hm. This time Kurt Russell's car wasn't death proof.. He's really good here, as is Brendan Gleeson, but Scott Speedman is limp and I haven't been able to take Ving Rhames's "dramatic" monotone delivery seriously since Pulp Fiction. Snappy script by James Ellroy, but Shelton's directing is rather run of the mill. That said, the car chase through the streets of South Central during the Rodney King riots & looting is terrific. Meanwhile, Terence Blanchard's nondescript music pops up in all the wrong places, as it usually does. Not bad but not Heat or L.A. Confidential.

[Dan Warburton]

Marcel Carné, Hotel du Nord, 1938

This, presumably, is what Basile over on the Inglourious Basterds thread would consider a good script - though you really need good subtitles to appreciate Arletty's atmosphère..

[jrip]

Matteio Garrone, Gomorra, 2008

Think I might postpone that holiday to Naples. Bleak, squalid, scary, very well done - but not a film you're likely to want to watch again and again, I suspect.

I want to watch it again just to see if I can figure it all out. I was pretty much perplexed about a lot of it coming out of the theater and only put some of it together by reading various internet discussions afterwards. It's a great movie but it doesn't go out of it's way to explains things to you. The film's storytelling style reminded me a little bit of The Wire.

[Dan Warburton]

Francis Ford Coppola, One From The Heart, 1982

You either love it or hate it, but I happen to love it (but from what I read elsewhere the DVD cut is a massacre compared to the original version), but then again I'm a sucker for overstylised lighting (Sirk, Fellini, Fassbinder, Greenaway), not to mention Nastassja Kinski tightrope walking and Tom Waits songs about defrosting iceboxes with ballpoint pens. (I do think he'd have been better off with Rickie Lee Jones than Crystal Gayle, though). You can see why the film went twenty times over budget.

[Dan Warburton]

Federico Fellini, 8½, 1963

Simply amazing!

[jon abbey]

if I was forced at gunpoint to name my favorite film of all time, I think that would be it.

[walto]

One of my faves too.

[leroysghost]

ditto

[moesgaard]

This, presumably, is what Basile over on the Inglourious Basterds thread would consider a good script - though you really need good subtitles to appreciate Arletty's atmosphère..

Now, that's presuming! I've not seen this one i'm afraid. You have to compare what's comparable, Starship Troopers buy Paul Verhoeven for example would be a good script

About Ghommora, the connection with The Wire was the right thing to say to me, i'm definitely curious.

[leroysghost]

Starship Troopers buy [sic] Paul Verhoeven for example would be a good script

this is the first thing you've said here regarding film that i agree with Starship Troopers is great!!

[surfer]

Federico Fellini, 8½, 1963

Simply amazing!

This was on one of those pay channels: TCM, IFC or something else the other night. Admittedly I hadnt seen it in a few years, and I only watched about 20 minutes right in the middle. Carla's entrance to the flight of the bumblebee gets me every time. And Guido and Luisa's reaction to her and each other, and how it segues into the harem daydream, it's just stunning filmmaking. I could go on and on, one of my 2-3 favorite movies ever.

[Dan Warburton]

Carla's entrance to the flight of the bumblebee

You mean "Carlotta's Galop" (as it's called on my soundtrack album)? I spotted some Valkyries riding through the bathroom and a thieving magpie, but no bumble bees

[grisha]

Thirst

[Dan Warburton]

Bertrand Blier, Les Valseuses, 1974

Forget buttery Brando and the so-called scandal of Last Tango In Paris, this is far more daring and taboo smashing. A kind of bad boys version of Thelma and Louise (or is it Dumb and Dumber?), follow Depardieu and Dewaere and sidekick frigid (not for long) hairdresser Miou-Miou on a tour de France, "borrowing" other people's cars, stealing handbags, breaking into holiday homes and sniffing underwear, bribing a young mother to breast-feed them on a train (Brigitte Fossey.. talk about Jeux Interdits!), picking up and seducing a woman twice their age just released from prison (Jeanne Moreau, in the X-rated version of Jules et Jim - an awesome performance) and ending up on the run for a murder they didn't actually commit.. enough spoilers.. Really sharp filming (Bruno Nuytten, who went on to shoot for Duras and Godard, and direct Camille Claudel for Isabelle Adjani), surprisingly effective music by.. Stéphane Grappelli (!) - a real treat. Depardieu has never been better.

[Dan Warburton]

Luis Buñuel, La Mort en ce Jardin, 1956

Had been looking for this one for a while, and it didn't disappoint. Am a sucker for jungle river movies anyway (Aguirre, Apocalypse Now..), and with a cast that includes the mighty Charles Vanel, Simone Signoret and Michel Piccoli, I couldn't resist. It starts off pretty straightforwardly as a bunch of people thrown together by chance and forced to flee for their lives in fear of the local military, and ends in an amazing bloodbath in the middle of a green jungle hell, complete with surrealistic touches including evening gowns and tiaras stolen from the wreckage of a plane crash, postcards of the Arc de Triomphe and Piccoli's delirious story of soft-boiled eggs.

[leroysghost]

Luis Buñuel, La Mort en ce Jardin, 1956

ooo nice. i've been looking forward to that one too.
still no dvd's of Los Olvidados, Nazarín and Tristana though

speaking of Signoret, i just saw Army of Shadows. i'm going to watch it a second time but at the moment i think that it's my favorite Melville next to Les Enfants Terribles. i find it odd that you never hear a word about the blatant use of models/sets in the parachuting/blitz sequences in Army of Shadows, but it's all anyone ever seems to talk about when it comes to Un Flic.

[Dan Warburton]

Le Monde newspaper produced a whole series of low budget DVDs to give away with the newspaper - including Los Olvidados (with your beloved suicidal goat spoof docu as a bonus feature). Dirt cheap - 5€ - and I'm sure there are still plenty in stock if I stop by Le Monde HQ (they sell them in the boutique on the ground floor). Image isn't exactly Criterion quality, but it'd keep you going you while you're waiting for a better version to come along. Let me know if you're interested and I'll swing on by (PM me with name & address if you like).