Recently Watched Films 2012

[Dan Warburton]

anachronisms in No Country:

Well, let's call it poetic license Can't say I noticed more than a couple of them, and I've seen the film 4 times. Meanwhile, seems (from what I've read) they went to some pains getting the accent right in Fargo.. amused to see that folks in Brainerd speak remarkably like folks in Rochester NY (pronounced Reeachistrr)

terrence malick's days of heaven
the print we watched was a bit off--the audio was compressed, and the visuals were stretched--but nonetheless this was gorgeous to see on the big screen.

As the bloke says in Life of Brian, you lucky lucky bastard!

[MRS]

Well, let's call it poetic license Can't say I noticed more than a couple of them, and I've seen the film 4 times.

Almost every firearm in that film is anachronistic by at least five years down to the Remington with which he hunts pronghorn. Hairs split, I've never felt the movie attempts to capture anything (materially) more than a very rough place in time, script girl be damned.

[Jesse]

As much as I think Refn was going for Melville- vis-a-vis -80s -American -anti-hero, Drive is essentially Thief redux. The vibe, definitely, as well as some of the characters [Albert Brooks is Robert Loggia, the truly frightening sponsor who will destroy you with sociopathic aplomb].

What grabbed me is the rhythm of the scenes in-between the action - Refn holds a shot with an odd contemplative feel, before leaping to the hyper-accelerated, brutal violence. This toggling between the meditative and escalating violence works for the duration [I saw this augured in Bronson two years ago].

[Eyjafjallajökull]

The Interrupters, Steve James, 2011

[Dan Warburton]

Chantal Akerman, D'Est, 1993

As usual, Mr Rosenbaum says it better than I can http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=6609

[grant]

Amazing film! I still have recollections of the piano sequence...

Agree strongly with a reviewer who describes it as an overlapping axis of metaphor between past and present/future. Seasons. Rhythms of nature and spaces.

Thinking of the scene with the horse-drawn cart and motorcycle both eventually transecting at the tree (vertical symmetry).

Plan on watching News from Home soon.

[Dan Warburton]

Yes, what appear to be everyday even banal scenes are all carefully orchestrated (my choice of the word is deliberate - Akerman must be one of the most composerly filmmakers). The timing of each shot, the speed and direction of the tracking, the overall editing.. amazingly detailed and very moving work.

[Eyjafjallajökull]

I vaguely remember someone (Jon? or would the plural form be more appropriate?) fancying competitive eaters here and I have no idea where else to post it, so here it is, a short documentary by Errol Morris about five-time champion Bill Simmons:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opini ... gador.html

[jon abbey]

this thread would work:

http://ihatemusic.noquam.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4471

Errol Morris is kind of a ruling guy to follow on Twitter, certainly a breath of fresh air.

[Dan Warburton]

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Das Leben der Anderen, 2006

I thought this was quite outstanding in every regard, and would like to know what some our German - and specifically Berlin-based - posters made of it. Remind me to go back here when I return to Berlin http://www.ddr-museum.de/de/museum/institution/

[Eyjafjallajökull]

I have trouble remembering most parts of it but I clearly recall disliking it (or shrugging at best), mostly for its factual incorrectness (you know, Stalinism in '85 etc.) and the portrayed centredness and viciousness of power, lack of disciplinary power and well, generally the entire German "we were all victims" attitude towards either of (but now I'm digressing) the two German totalitarian states. I'd have to watch it anew to say anything beyond that though.

Quick note: If you're interested in East German everyday culture (and post-1989 melancholia), you should consider travelling to the Dokumentationszentrum Alltagskultur der DDR in Eisenhüttenstadt (about 50 kilometres from Berlin). Beuys collected the stuff for his Economic Values (Wirtschaftswerte) assemblage there.

[leroysghost]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3183/

[Eyjafjallajökull]

Yeah, that pretty much nails it.

[Wombatz]

Thanks for the link, that'll safe me from trying to remember enough to be able to explain why it's an awful film next time! I must add, though, that while I sort of threw up in my mouth at every scene, I'm just a Wessi, and my woman who is from East Berlin thought it splendid entertainment and was kind of impressed that somebody had managed to apply Hollywood logic to part of her history so thoroughly, and with love.

[leroysghost]

if nothing else, Ulrich Mühe is the shit

[Wombatz]

if nothing else, Ulrich Mühe is the shit

Yes, but like, dunno, Neil Young endorsing Reagan, it's a bit tough not to take this personal as a fan ...

[MRS]

Cockfighter (Monte Hellman, 1974)

"If you can talk when you're asleep, you can talk when you're awake," a nice prelude to its desultory whims, and obviously the decision of when to speak and when not to speak (Oates offers more or less no diegetic speech throughout). Harry Dean is oily, oily good (the white suit perseveres). Must say the intermezzo in the motel room is worth the admission, it looks like it's filmed underwater + languorous, sotted, 70s white electric blues in the back, the chickens look like exotic fish. Ambient crowd noise during the big fight under fluorescent rods resonates like an old MISL game. The notarized handshakes between Mansfield and Jack give some constitution to the mute's earnest gruff. Yet Oates' faces aren't ever forced, but still marmoreal, off a bust. The jist is unsurprisingly male, loner Western, Odysseus concealed carry, piss on her (direct quote) but not of firearms, nor F-14's nor hostages but, cockfighting, and almost glum satire of an interminable genre. Also splendid are the referee's sun porous hat and Ed Begley, Jr. as towhead hilljack. Unpretentious trip through north-central Florida, eastern Tennessee then Georgia, and thank the maker now we know where Point Break's robbers' masks come from. Most certainly into my top 20 American films of the 70s, patiently paced, Suttree on land.

After the Governor pokes the Polish heritage of George B. Shull's wonderful cocksman Omar Baradansky: "Jesus, four generations in Evansville and he talks to me like I just got off the boat."

[jon abbey]

haven't seen that and should, I can definitely recommend the book it's based on by Charles Willeford, one of the best non-Jim Thompson noir books. looks like he wrote the screenplay here, nice.

[Dan Warburton]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3183/

Yeah, that pretty much nails it.

I don't think it nails very much at all. I like what Žižek had to say about Children of Men on the DVD bonus, but I find this review pretty lite.

One cannot but recall here a witty formula of life under a hard Communist regime: Of the three features–personal honesty, sincere support of the regime and intelligence–it was possible to combine only two, never all three. If one was honest and supportive, one was not very bright; if one was bright and supportive, one was not honest; if one was honest and bright, one was not supportive. The problem with Dreyman is that he does combine all three features.

Nicely put (but replace "under a hard Communist regime" with "as a visiting star professor at NYU" and "Dreyman" with "Žižek", and it seems to make sense too), but we are talking about a film here, not a documentary. It's perfectly possible to make a film that depicts life in a particular place and time very honestly while being peopled with characters who are either larger than life or even two-dimensional - think of the yuppies in Mike Leigh films. And I think Žižek's reading too much in with his idea of a "secret homosexual undercurrent" - the impression I have is that Wiesler is more affected by the Brecht book and the music he overhears than by Dreyman himself.
Anyway, as regards the script, the acting, the cinematography and the music (and I'm not the world's biggest Gabriel Yared fan), I thought it was a fine piece of work. If you really want to "throw up in your mouth" try The Reader (see several pages back).
Meanwhile -

is wonderful (cracking write-up too MRS). And the Willeford book is just as good (Willeford appears in the film himself btw, as one of the judges)

[Dan Warburton]

Max Ophuls, La Ronde, 1950



Jean-Pierre Melville, L'Armée des Ombres, 1969

Pretty good way to spend a snowbound Sunday afternoon, imo.