Film Discussion / Now Watching

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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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Eighth Pillar wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:44 am Funeral Parade Of Roses is slept on. Fantastic disorienting visuals. What did you think of it? Double Indemnity is a classic, straight down the line. There is a 4K HDR release coming soon via Criterion which I am hella excited for. Have not seen the Oscar Micheaux documentary though! Where did you watch that?
I liked Funeral Parade Of Roses, although the interruptions by the director & intermingling of on-set interviews with the actors was a step too far for me, it kept breaking me out of the experience in ways the non-linearity of the rest of it didn't. I'm curious if the filmmaker had seen Night Of The Living Dead prior to making this; I see some similarities in angles / lighting / pacing between Eddie killing his mother and Karen wielding the trowel in the basement.

The Micheaux doc was broadcast a week or two ago on Turner Classic Movies (along with the other two - I've been recording a lot of stuff off TCM recently). I think it might be available on demand through their app. It did a solid job given some of the limitations of surviving footage and images of Micheaux. I'd heard his name for years, first came across him mentioned in passing in exploitation filmmaker David Friedman's autobiography "A Youth In Babylon", but had never dug deeper into his story.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

Post by Scream & Writhe »

Been a minute. Didn't watch a hell of a lot in February, just had too much other stuff on the go. Some highlights from the end of January until now:

eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999) - 35mm screening at the Cinematheque quebecoise.

Spider (David Cronenberg, 2002) - The last great Cronenberg film? I should have stuck around for the 35mm double feature alongside eXistenZ but ended up watching the DVD at home a couple nights later instead. An unfortunate move because the DVD transfer isn't very pleasing and I kept wishing I was at the cinema.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Elio Petri, 1970)

A 4-day Monte Hellman marathon: Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, China 9, Liberty 37, Ride in the Whirlwind, The Shooting. This was a blast. All were great (Whirlwind might rank last, if it had to). Two-Lane Blacktop absolutely deserves its cult status, but The Shooting totally floored me. A must-see, very special western.

Yankee (Tinto Brass, 1966) - The surprising choice of director results in a rewarding arthouse/experimental western. There's a close up of the protagonist's face near the end of the film that was the exact face I saw in a dream (or nightmare, more-or-less) the night before. Creepy.

The Missouri Breaks (Arthur Penn, 1976) - Still can't formulate how this makes me feel. Worth seeking out for fans of the western genre as it has some unique moments and the overall mood is very akin to a Hellman picture in a lot of ways. Letterboxd review here.

The Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1971) - For Pasolini's 100th.

Once a Thief (Ralph Nelson, 1965) - Alain Delon, Jack Palance, Tony Musante and a sickly John Davis Chandler as a pack of thieves with Van Heflin in pursuit? Okay!

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (Sophie Huber, 2012)

The Outfit (John Flynn, 1973)

La Horse (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1970)

Lonely Are the Brave (David Miller, 1962) - An inverse spiritual companion to No Country for Old Men. Letterboxd review here.

I skipped a 35mm 25th anniversary screening of Starship Troopers last weekend but am gearing up for a Jean-Pierre Melville cycle at the Cinematheque soon.

And a couple good recent podcast episodes:

The Projection Booth Podcast #562: Memories Within Miss Aggie
Twitch of the Death Nerve Podcast #19: Caligula
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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A film festival started in Brussels with Lovecraft and Hong Kong cinema as the two main themes. So far went to see these two:

Color out of Space
Nicolas Cage goes nuts after a weird psychedelic meteorite hits his back yard. Lots of good dark music and psychedelic colorful scenes. I was not expecting too much but was positively surprised, this was actually a pretty good movie.

Encounter of the Spooky Kind
HK action/comedy/horror(?) by Sammo Hung. A guy (Sammo Hung) has marital issues, spends a few nights in a haunted house, escapes hopping corpses, gets initiated as a wizard and along all this kicks a lot of ass. Some of the more humorous aspects of Asian cinema I often find a bit painful to watch but in this one it did not bother too much. Especially when the action gets more and more ridiculous/awesome towards the totally nuts ending.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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a few of the things I've watched lately:

Diabolique - 1955 - not sure why I've never watched this before, great thriller about a wife and a mistress teaming up to kill the cheating bastard of a husband. Tense and creepy, with a prototype of detective Colombo showing up in the third act.

Our Mother's House - 1967 - seven kids in Britain have to figure out what to do when their mom dies, and then have to deal with the return of their long-lost father.

Il Bidone / The Swindlers
- 1955 - three con men in postwar Italy work various scams, including dressing like clergy to grift farmers out of their life savings. Starts out like a comedy, but turns bleaker and bleaker by the minute.

Also on a Carol Reed kick - Night Train To Munich, The Man Between, and currently about halfway through Odd Man Out. All worth watching for the beautiful cinematography if nothing else.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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Just watched Drive My Car, 2021. Been getting a lot of attention in the current award circuit, so I gave it a shot. Was very moving. Recommended if you like slow paced and quiet burners.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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yullowteef wrote: Sun Feb 20, 2022 4:35 pm The White Ribbon
probably Haneke's "best film"?? in terms of like really nice cinematography and historical relevance. even though my favorite personally is "benny's video." really great stuff all around, his work seems obsessed by diagramming all the ways in which the german psyche is deeply fucked
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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JuntaCadre wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 10:49 pm Just watched Drive My Car, 2021. Been getting a lot of attention in the current award circuit, so I gave it a shot. Was very moving. Recommended if you like slow paced and quiet burners.
I also watched this yesterday. I liked it, but maybe not as much as I had expected. I don’t usually mind films being long, but I don’t quite see why this had to be three hours. I also thought the drama between the main character and the young actor to be humdrum and just not credible. I found myself most interested in the process of putting on a theatre production, actually.

Also watched Border (Gräns) recently. Another good movie with some unfortunate flaws, imo. Several subplots that meet in a all too convenient way. For a supposedly magical realist film, it was also low on magic or beauty. But still, a good film nevertheless. Imo not anywhere near as good as Let the Right One In, however.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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chryptusrecords wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 12:12 pm
yullowteef wrote: Sun Feb 20, 2022 4:35 pm The White Ribbon
probably Haneke's "best film"?? in terms of like really nice cinematography and historical relevance. even though my favorite personally is "benny's video." really great stuff all around, his work seems obsessed by diagramming all the ways in which the german psyche is deeply fucked
Cache is my favourite Haneke. Great director regardless.

Just got back from a screening of Le Cercle Rouge to kick off a brief Melville cycle at the cinematheque here.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

Post by BrachliegenTapes »

Top picks from the past month or so:

Women in Love, 1969 - top notch British beef and naked grieving graeco-roman, what's not to love?
In the Earth, 2021 - Wheatley's been pretty hit or miss for years but for me this was a return to form of sorts.
Face/Off, 1997 - what a predicament! not sure how i'd managed to not see this before, v enjoyable and totally unhinged
Lamb, 2021
Witchcraft, 1964
Titane, 2021 - didn't grab me in the same way Raw did but still some brilliant sequences in there.
New Town Utopia, 2017 - a couple of absolutely cringe lines from a few of the heads but some decent keilleresque cinematography. Joe Morgan steals the show as a proper union man labour councillor for 'moscow-on-thames', r.i.p they don't make them like they used to.
Petite Maman, 2021 - the most accurate depiction of the way children munch wotsits in the history of cinema, fantastic stuff. Céline Sciamma really knows how to make films about childhood v well.
Black Bear, 2020 - i'm a complete sucker for films about filmmaking so the second half of this really did it for me, some great farce.
and revisiting some of Peter Tscherkassky's short films. Sound design on these are fantastic, particularly the Dirk Schaefer scored films. Tempted by this: https://purgexxx.bandcamp.com/album/dir ... -2005-2021

Also checked out the latest Matrix and Batman reboots, found the latter far more enjoyable than the former which was just pure cringe for me. Although felt like Matt Reeves missed a v good opportunity to finally include Bela Lugosi's Dead in a Batman picture...
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

Post by Brian O'Blivion »

I've been a bit disappointed with some of the newer films I've seen lately, so decided to dig into the past. Some recent watches that I'd like to recommend:

The Cranes Are Flying (Kalatozov, 1957)
- Russian WWII romantic drama. Incredible B&W cinematography and brilliant acting. I bawled like a child at the end. A new favourite, no doubt, and highly recommended.

Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick, 1957)
- Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster delivering monster performances in this sharp-looking noir about an immoral music publicist who gets tangled up in the personal affairs of a newspaper columnist whose fame he depends on. I was very impressed by Lancaster's performance in The Swimmer, so it was a treat to see him younger and just as talented here.

The American Friend (Wenders, 1977)
- I was still in the mood for crime noir, so decided to check out this Wenders flick, having little knowledge of the director's work aside from Paris, Texas. Dennis Hopper is great, but it is Bruno Ganz who really shines here. I believe this was his first movie, as he was primarily a theatre actor at the time, so I was very impressed. Sophisticated script writing that demands you pay close attention to the dialogue, and beautiful use of colour and framing in many shots.
BrachliegenTapes wrote: Wed Mar 23, 2022 5:37 pm Black Bear, 2020 - i'm a complete sucker for films about filmmaking so the second half of this really did it for me, some great farce.
Agreed 100%. I loved everything about this movie. It made me sit up and pay attention. I hadn't seen a lot of Aubrey Plaza's work prior, so I was pretty blown away by her talent.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

Post by sunandsteel »

Bit late of a review, but it's periodically been on my mind the past few weeks... watched the new Batman on opening night. My initial reaction upon completion was standing up from my theatre seat and openly proclaiming that it was indeed one of the gayest movies I have ever seen.

The more I think about it, the more I dislike it. I had pretty low expectations but went in hopeful it would be somewhat enjoyable. The Riddler was the best part and one of the few redeeming elements. Literally lol'd at the Nirvana melody being used as Batman's theme. Too on the nose, which you can say about almost anything in the movie - dialogue, acting, plot. The interjected woke stuff came off as really forced, politics aside. It is a product of our time and current cultural trends that it will age poorly like the MasterCard utility belt bit in the Clooney film. Robert Pattinson does not make for a believable Batman. In the Nolan films you're like "yeah this guy is totally going to kill himself for Gotham". His take on the character was pretty one dimensional, the Bruce Wayne half was essentially non existent. The movie just dragged on and on, had no business being 3 hours long.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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in order to not let this thread die on that last embarrassing and dogshit post, I wanna recommend the greatest documentary film of all time, The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (ゆきゆきて、神軍). Director Kazuo Hara follows WW2 veteran soldier Kenzo Okuzaki as he travels around Japan trying to seek retribution and divinely-inspired vengeance on the military leaders of his unit who committed various atrocities, including summary execution and cannibalism of fellow soliders, in Japan's campaign in New Guinea. Before the film even begins, Okuzaki has already been convicted of shooting a sling shot at Emperor Hirohito, and also made pornographic cartoons of Hirohito which he threw from rooftops, and spent ten years in prison for an "unintentional" murder of a con man who ripped him off. The film itself depicts the tension between Japanese social customs of propriety and the unspoken legacy of the war even as late as the 1980's.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

Post by BrachliegenTapes »

chryptusrecords wrote: Mon Apr 04, 2022 10:05 am in order to not let this thread die on that last embarrassing and dogshit post
Still reeling from the gall of that post. As a cleanser, here are some films I rated from the recent London LGBTQIA+ Flare Film Festival @ BFI:

Parallel Mothers, 2021 - Recent Almodovar seems so completely tone deaf on issues of class but the filmmaking otherwise always v tight. Forensic archeology bits on Spanish Civil war executions, exhumation and mourning done really well.
Flee, 2021 - Absolutely harrowing animated documentary but well worth seeking out for the first hand insight offered on the prolonged trauma of the refugee experience.
Great Freedom, 2021 - Really bleak engrossing drama centring on paragraph 175 in German criminal code.
Tramps! 2022 - Solid doc of archive footage and talking heads taking a look at the bigger picture of New Romantic art and fashion. Nothing groundbreaking here but some really decent analysis that remains reasonably nostalgia free and self-aware.

The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On added to the watchlist!
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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just watched Orson Welles' adaptation of Kafka's The Trial with Anthony Perkins. It's visually stunning, the compositions, use of location, sets and lighting effects are all top notch. But the dialogue made me wish that I was watching it in a language I don't understand with no subtitles.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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Interzone (1987). Really weird and funny B-movie, with elements of Stalker and Mad Max incorporated. Not a good movie exactly, but entertaining.

Wattstax (1973). Great documentary about a festival Stax records put on in Watts, as well as life in the community of Watts at the time.
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murmur wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 12:10 pm Wattstax (1973). Great documentary about a festival Stax records put on in Watts, as well as life in the community of Watts at the time.
Wattstax is great. Just watched Summer Of Soul a few days ago, and Soul Power (about the Zaire 74 concert that was tied into the Ali/Foreman "Rumble In The Jungle" title match) a few weeks ago. Both are worth the watch. Summer is on HBO Max, and Soul Power is available on Criterion Channel.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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housepig wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:16 am just watched Orson Welles' adaptation of Kafka's The Trial with Anthony Perkins. It's visually stunning, the compositions, use of location, sets and lighting effects are all top notch. But the dialogue made me wish that I was watching it in a language I don't understand with no subtitles.
Felt much the same when I watched this a couple of years ago, really holds you at a distance.

The Last Angel of History 1996 absolutely fantastic and available as a suitably eroded VHS rip on youtube https://youtu.be/EEbjMrl-GXc
Zoning lots of Goldie now off the back of it.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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housepig wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:16 am just watched Orson Welles' adaptation of Kafka's The Trial with Anthony Perkins. It's visually stunning, the compositions, use of location, sets and lighting effects are all top notch. But the dialogue made me wish that I was watching it in a language I don't understand with no subtitles.
I have wanted to see this for a while. How does it compare to the book?
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SS1535 wrote: Sat Apr 09, 2022 12:40 pm
housepig wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:16 am just watched Orson Welles' adaptation of Kafka's The Trial with Anthony Perkins. It's visually stunning, the compositions, use of location, sets and lighting effects are all top notch. But the dialogue made me wish that I was watching it in a language I don't understand with no subtitles.
I have wanted to see this for a while. How does it compare to the book?
Can't say, I've never read the book!
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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Just watched DIE HARD 2 last night, as my wife grew up on more foreign/artistic cinema and never really got to see the barrage of brilliant/insane action films from the 80's & 90's. Totally forgot everything about it. It's actually quite the ride. Also watched FATAL EXAM on Shudder totally blind, and well...it was fucking horrible, and not in a good, captivating way...
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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housepig wrote: Sat Apr 09, 2022 2:34 pm
SS1535 wrote: Sat Apr 09, 2022 12:40 pm
housepig wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:16 am just watched Orson Welles' adaptation of Kafka's The Trial with Anthony Perkins. It's visually stunning, the compositions, use of location, sets and lighting effects are all top notch. But the dialogue made me wish that I was watching it in a language I don't understand with no subtitles.
I have wanted to see this for a while. How does it compare to the book?
Can't say, I've never read the book!
Then you have a new project! Just like my project will now be to track down where I can watch this movie...

Jokes aside, the book is very good. It's one of the strangely mind-numbing things that Kafka tends to write. Much like a long frustration dream.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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Teaser trailer and international trailer for Cronenberg's (new) Crimes of the Future.

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/371 ... new-movie/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGwtPfjt9Zc
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Watched Douglas Sirk's Written On The Wind (1956), an absolutely impeccable melodrama that was more visually striking than most anything I've seen that's come out in the past 10-15 years. Full of caustic, biting dialogue and so many sly double entendres. Looking forward to checking out more of Sirk's work, currently available on Criterion.

As far as more recent fare goes, Michael Bay's Ambulance is certainly the best American film to be released so far this year. A goddamn rollercoaster of a movie; makes Los Angeles look stunning.
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Image

watched this last week, haven't stopped thinking about it since. i can't believe i'd never heard about it before.
f.m. einheit works at a burger joint in west germany. after stumbling upon an anarchist cult-type-thing led by genesis p. orridge, he learns that he can cause the public to go crazy and riot if he plays industrial noise music instead of muzak at work. absolutely unbelievable. the scene where he learns about the cult is basically a neubauten show from 84, just dudes banging on metal in an underground sewer somewhere. so fucking good.
soundtrack features soft cell, genesis p. orridge, f.m. einheit and einsturzende neubauten, and it's exactly as great as you think it is.

it's streaming free on tubi, and vinegar syndrome released a blu-ray recently. highly recommended.
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Re: Film Discussion / Now Watching

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apneicvoid wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:43 pm Watched Douglas Sirk's Written On The Wind (1956), an absolutely impeccable melodrama that was more visually striking than most anything I've seen that's come out in the past 10-15 years. Full of caustic, biting dialogue and so many sly double entendres. Looking forward to checking out more of Sirk's work, currently available on Criterion.
Really enjoyed everything I've seen from Douglas Sirk, with All that Heaven Allows being one that I've repeatedly returned to.
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