Recently Watched Films 2010

[leroysghost]

Catherine Breillat - Barbe Bleue (2009)

very likable and playful mucking about with fables. yet another reminder that, when she isn't talking your ear off with lugubrious, dissertation-like text, Breillat is actually a good filmmaker (she is particularly great at casting/eliciting good performances). too bad the visuals in this one are so poorly executed. it looks like she is going to follow this one up with a companion take on Sleeping Beauty. i'm looking forward to it.

[Dan Warburton]

Sam Peckinpah, The Wild Bunch, 1969

[j-p]

Fear of Fear (Fassbinder, 1975)

Not his best by far but still worth watching (as with any / all Fassbinder), I think this one particularly for Carstensen’s typically nuanced performance, who is excellent as the paranoid housewife slowly losing her grip on reality.

[Dohol]

Sam Peckinpah, The Wild Bunch, 1969

Yup..

[Dan Warburton]

David Lynch, Eraserhead, 1977

"A dream of dark and troubling things", indeed. All the Lynch to come is already here, wrapped up in those dirty bandages.

[leroysghost]

Oren Moverman - The Messenger (2009)

wow, how did a film with such great wall to wall casting fly so far under the radar?
thanks for bringing this one to my attention Jesse. a very well observed film in all respects.

[Dan Warburton]

David Lynch, Blue Velvet, 1986

Fourth time, still packs a mighty punch.

[Jesse]

LG, glad you got to The Messenger-a fine work, no surprise it fared poorly selling tix. Not a popular sell, grief in all its manifestations. And that fucking war brought home.

[Dan Warburton]

Martin Scorsese, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, 1974

"Shoot the dog!"

[Dan Warburton]

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Niklashauser Fahrt, 1970

Well, as my dad said once after a particularly catastrophic round of golf, I'm glad I've played this course, because I won't be coming back here again..
Noble sentiments and all that, but the temptation to play the Monty Python avant garde cinema spoof episode and / or Ken Russell's Tommy was hard to overcome.
For the hardcore RWF fans only, I'd say.

[Miguel Prado]

Peter Hutton - at sea
very good

[MRS]

You know I read a lot. Especially things that have to do with history. I find that shit fascinating.

[Captain Hate]

Heineken!?! Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!

[Dan Warburton]

Karel Reisz, The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1981

Harold Pinter's film-within-a-film screenplay is smart, and an elegant solution to the problem of how to make a movie adaptation of a book with three different endings and an author who tosses a coin to determine what order they appear in, but I wonder whether they'd do it the same way today, in these post-Pulp Fiction, post-Mulholland Dr days. Solid performances all round, even if Ms Streep's accent sounds a little too posh.

[Wombatz]

Karel Reisz, The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1981

Harold Pinter's film-within-a-film screenplay is smart, and an elegant solution to the problem of how to make a movie adaptation of a book with three different endings and an author who tosses a coin to determine what order they appear in, but I wonder whether they'd do it the same way today, in these post-Pulp Fiction, post-Mulholland Dr days. Solid performances all round, even if Ms Streep's accent sounds a little too posh.

I've read the screenplay and found it much better than both the novel and the film. Pinter is really an amazing screenwriter, his Proust thing is sort of a new artform (and completely unfilmable, though I think they did it and failed miserably).

[Wombatz]

Oh, and just because I'm logged in, I felt completely manipulated during the finale of my recent watching of The Wild Bunch, and not in a good way. Doesn't work for me, you've got to accept so many Hemingway-type cliches before the thing gains any deepness. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, otoh, I found a very moving film . . .

[Dan Warburton]

That's a very interesting observation, and a position I quite agree with. That macabre laughter rings in the ears long after the screen goes blank.. the only halfway sympathetic character in the bunch is Dutch (and even then, you don't know for sure..). My reaction to Pike Bishop and the old man is ambiguous, and the Gorch brothers are beasts.. the only character you can just about feel for is Deke Thornton. The bloodbath is cinematographically amazing, but you always feel kind of guilty about enjoying it. I suppose that was what Sam wanted you to feel.. if so, mission accomplie. But I find Straw Dogs works better in this respect, probably because Hoffman is such a wimp throughout until, as the saying goes, the chips are down.
But Alfredo Garcia is - think it's fair to say this, though it's a daft thing to say - one of my top ten movies of all time. Oates is simply stunning, the symmetrical structure of the film and its eventual and inevitable climax is on the same level for me with any great Greek or Shakespearean tragedy.

[Dan Warburton]

William Friedkin, The Hunted, 2003

And I thought Speed was silly..

[leroysghost]

Dennis Hopper - Out of the Blue (1980)

before i heard the news, i had just happened to put this one on again the very day dennis died. sad.

[Dan Warburton]

David Lynch, Mulholland Dr., 2001

Fourth time, having finally got the plot / timeline figured out, I really appreciated the camera work and editing even more. Beautiful.