Recently Watched Films 2011

[Dan Warburton]

Pier Paolo Pasolini, Medea, 1969

Who cares if the dubbing is woefully out of sync half the time, that the split screens are clearly visible and Laurent Terzieff's centaur costume risible? Everything else is absolute magic, from the soundtrack to Tosi's amazing costumes to the stunning location shoots in Cappadocia and Aleppo. Wish I could find some better photos.

[Dan Warburton]

Orson Welles, Touch Of Evil, 1958

Our little discussion yesterday sent me back to this again (the Walter Murch recut version - probably closer to what Welles originally had in mind before the studio took an axe to his movie, but without the Hank Mancini theme over the opening tracking shot, alas). It's still up there among my all time favourites, no doubt. I can even stomach the deadly wooden Charlton Heston for once (well, twice - he's OK in Soylent Green too but that's about it). No wonder Murch is a fan: Welles's use of sound on and offscreen - Michel Chion could write a book on this film alone - is a clear precursor of Murch's work on THX 1138 and The Conversation. Awesome. Won't hear a word against it.

[billygomberg]

The Marriage Of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)



Great (perfect?) later-period Fassbinder. Schuygulla is hypnotic, bitchy, and able to keep her motives just opaque. Can't say enough about Ballhaus' work behind the camera for Fassbinder, but every film of Fassbinder's that really gets me, gets me with an extended scene that just lays a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound underneath the whole thing, letting the dialogue, staging, camerawork, and sound just lay together. One of my favorite examples of this is in Year of 13 Moons (using Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop" over a visit to a drug den) - but here, two scenes, the first after Braun is hired (or whatever) by Oswald, and successfully uh "negotiates" with an American businessman, a classical piano piece (not bothering to look it up) wafts through the room, only to be echoed in real time by Oswald on the piano in the room itself. And during the finale, the radio broadcast of West Germany's victory over Hungary in the World Cup pretty much blaring through the entire sequence.

and of course, spot your favorite Fassbinder regulars in minor roles.

also, IFC is showing Fassbinder's 3.5 hr "sci-fi" World On A Wire in a few weeks. oh boy.

[jon abbey]

also, IFC is showing Fassbinder's 3.5 hr "sci-fi" World On A Wire in a few weeks. oh boy.

wow, nice! good tip!

[billygomberg]

also, IFC is showing Fassbinder's 3.5 hr "sci-fi" World On A Wire in a few weeks. oh boy.

wow, nice! good tip!

http://www.ifccenter.com/films/world-on-a-wire/

full digital remaster. I think this screened @ MOMA in April or something and I missed it. so yeah. see you @ IFC

[leroysghost]

showing at the HFA sept. 10th & 11th, smack dab in the middle of Amplify. darn.

guess i'll have to wait for the criterion...

[jon abbey]

yeah, I thought you meant the IFC TV channel. I really want to see that, but I never go to movie theaters anymore, I'll also wait for the Criterion.

[billygomberg]

yeah well I don't live in a world with time for cable tv so....I sometimes go see a movie. is this going to be out on Criterion?

[jon abbey]

I remember reading they were involved in the restoration, they never announce them until they finish theatrical screenings.

[billygomberg]

ah well that makes good sense to me. gonna be a long night on 6th ave....

[jrip]

World on a Wire is already available for streaming in the Criterion section of Hulu.

[Wombatz]

Mike Leigh, Naked, 1993

One of my least favourite Leigh films too, but I keep going back to it for Thewlis, whose performance is outstanding. Leigh must have had a ball writing his lines, but at times you laugh so much that you wonder what such a smart, bright guy is doing down on his luck in London in the middle of the night. The problem I have with this film is the stark contrast between real, believable characters - Louise being the best example - and crude stereotypes (Sebastian the "landlord" and Sandra the nurse, neither of whom I find remotely credible). Leigh can't hide his hatred of the yuppie culture of Thatcher's Britain, but he never seems able to portray the upper classes with any real conviction. Some great moments (Archie and Maggie, the night watchman), some unnecessary and uncomfortable ones (the "dancer", the girl from the café..), but nicely filmed and well executed by all. Andrew Dickson's sub-Mertens harp twiddling music is a pain in the ass though

I think the caricature might have actually worked very well if everybody had turned in merely good performances. The contrast between yuppie cartoon landlord vs real Louise would have made sense. But Thewlis' once-in-a-lifetime performance completely upstages everything and I suspect the only way for Leigh to still get the movie as a whole to function would have been to cut out every scene that Thewlis isn't in. It's a pity he didn't, but then I guess he liked his script.

[grisha]

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

[grisha]

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

[bryan]

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Did you see it in 3D? What did you think? I really want to see it, especially after listening to this interview with Herzog here:

http://www.maximumfun.org/sound-young-a ... ng-america

I am still kicking myself for missing his talk in Baton Rouge a few years ago when he was in Louisiana filming Bad Lieutenant.

[grisha]

yes in 3D. made me a bit dizzy. anyway, worth watching, i think. no one will say it's Herzog's greatest achievement, but the inteviews / subject matter is interesting, and the paintings are really beautiful (these were also the places where i thought the 3D was necessary and worked great).

[leroysghost]

the inteviews / subject matter is interesting, and the paintings are really beautiful (these were also the places where i thought the 3D was necessary and worked great).

this.
Also, it's nice to see the one not shitty part of Swing Time reclaimed.

[Dan Warburton]

Dario Argento, Il gatto a nove code, 1971

see comments in Giallo thread

[MRS]

Walter Hill, 48 Hrs., 1982

First and probably still the best of the "buddy cop" movies, nice tight plot, sharp script, plenty of action. Holds up well.

REMAR

[Dan Warburton]

John Frankenheimer, The Manchurian Candidate, 1962

I haven't read the book, from which large swathes of dialogue were apparently lifted, including the surreal encounter between Sinatra and Janet Leigh on the train (which leads you to think she was either a foreign agent herself, or some kind of CIA operator - neither of which idea is developed as a subplot as it turns out), but Axelrod's screenplay sounds a bit stilted and unnatural. Can't say I've ever been blown away by Sinatra's acting (and that constantly sweaty upper lip is distinctly offputting - sign of moral turmoil? remember Roland Barthes's The Romans In Film?), and Lawrence Harvey loses his phoney American accent far too quickly, sounding like a rather suave expat English gent (couldn't they have found an American actor? Monty Clift would have been ideal, as he was going off the rails himself nicely about that time..). Angela Lansbury's ball-breaking mother is fun, but a bit over the top (sure there's more than a touch of Mrs. Iselin in Diane Ladd's Marietta Fortune in Wild At Heart). Fortunately Frankenheimer's snazzy direction saves the day - the brainwashing dream sequence is superb, as is the final showdown at the Convention (yet again a Hitchcock homage, to The Man Who Knew Too Much this time - though you could argue that was "inspired" by the Lincoln assassination, and Lincoln's image appears prominently throughout The Manchurian Candidate). Anyone seen the 2004 remake?