Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
The Cassandra Crossing is one of the great bad movies precisely because she's in it. I know it's terrible, but it's perfectly terrible. Oh, and Richard Harris, also.
“Perfect“ films
- Thread starter Elpenor
- Start date
No I haven’t but I’ll check it out
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
They're two forgotten gems from the Loren ouvre, and you need to see them.
tbf I'm tempted by The Cassandra Crossing. 70s all-star disaster movie with Sophia Loren, Ava Gardner, Richard Harris, Burt Lancaster, and um, OJ Simpson. They do not make films like that anymore.
Raheem
Well-Known Member
Definitely no smoothie bar in Mad Max.
Reno
The In Kraut
The Cassandra Crossing is worth a watch for a laugh. A mismatched cast of Hollywood has-beens and hopefuls, slumming it in a cut-rate European take on the disaster movie, as the popularity of genre was already past its sell-by date. Everybody gives career-worst performances, as they struggle through the inadvertently hilarious screenplay.They're two forgotten gems from the Loren ouvre, and you need to see them.
tbf I'm tempted by The Cassandra Crossing. 70s all-star disaster movie with Sophia Loren, Ava Gardner, Richard Harris, Burt Lancaster, and um, OJ Simpson. They do not make films like that anymore.
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Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
I love the fact that when the original Mad Max was released outside Australia, people didn't understand that it was set in a post-apocalyptic future dystopia, and just assumed "well, this must be what it's like in Australia".
Reno
The In Kraut
The first Mad Max isn't set in a post apocalyptic future, it is set a few years in the future during an apparent breakdown of society. Unlike with the later films, the futuristic aspects are minimal, it's mainly a low budget revenge film with car chases. In the first sequel we find out that the social and economic unrest of the first film lead to the apocalypse.
I don't remember anybody thinking thats what Australia is like when the film came out. They dubbed the film for US audiences, because the US distributors thought audiences wouldn't understand much of the Australian slang and they wanted US audiences to think the film takes place in the US.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
(and I thought the idea in MM 1 is that there had been a war elsewhere in the world, and that Oz was barely hanging on by its fingertips?)
discokermit
Well-Known Member
i have just realised this film isnt perfect. if it had gotten a bigger audience it would have been though, but it didnt so it isnt.
i apologise to anyone who feels misled by my previous statement. this is a difficult time for us all but i am sure we will get through it.
Reno
The In Kraut
The quality of a film should never be measured by the amount of money it made.
A case in point being The Night Of the Hunter which was a critical and commercial failure but would be a very reasonable entry in the 'perfect film' thing. (I still find Robert Mitchum utterly terrifying.)
discokermit
Well-Known Member
the quality of the film isnt in doubt.
its a bit hard for me to articulate but i think film is at its best when used to educate as well as entertain and i think in this film of a struggle between miners and mine owners in a hollow in west virginia john sayles not only entertains, and not only educates us about this instance in time but does it in a way that also educates us about the nuanced roles of state, the middle class, the clergy and religion.
it educates on race and racism without being preachy, how and why its used and how it can be overcome.
it educates on womens part in thes struggles.
it also educates on the importance of music in working class life and how black and white musicians influenced, copied and adapted each others ideas.
it talks of the futility of armed struggle against an opponent with machine guns and that class solidarity is their greatest weapon.
it does all this with great actors, script, lighting, editing everything. it has some fantastic lines. some fantastic performances, james earl jones especially.
if it had reached a larger audience it would have been perfect. as it was, for whatever reason, it wasnt. something so clearly trying to make big generalisations from a small incident and educate, if people dont watch it has failed in some way in what it was trying to do.
as i say, its almost perfect but there is a way it could be improved on, which is more widespread knowledge of it. so it cant be perfect. just a very very very very good film.
discokermit
Well-Known Member
Is that part of the aim though? And obviously a lower budget, indie film is going to be seen by fewer people than a Hollywood blockbuster, regardless of how good the indie film is
.discokermit
Well-Known Member
discokermit
Well-Known Member
oof! eh?
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I've seen it.
Reno
The In Kraut
Great films don't offer answers, they raise questions. Any dramatic film which sets out to "educate" makes me run screaming in the other direction. My favourite films by directors like Hitchcock, Kubrick, Billy Wilder, David Lynch etc don't set out to educate.
Not sure what makes you think why Matewan would have been a better film has it been more commercial, as if the subject matter of an 1920s miner strike would have ever had audiences flocking to the cinema. Anyways, you appear to evaluate films as to how they work as propaganda, not as art.
My favourite film by John Sayles is Limbo. It's also his most ambiguous, unresolved and probably his least commercial film.
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Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Sexy Beast.
Roars along.
Looks great.
Superb cast.
Nods to the genre all round.
Knowing and yet still accessible.
Gal Dove in speedos
Don Logan. Every second of him; ‘You fakkin spunkbubble Aitch....’
Roars along.
Looks great.
Superb cast.
Nods to the genre all round.
Knowing and yet still accessible.
Gal Dove in speedos
Don Logan. Every second of him; ‘You fakkin spunkbubble Aitch....’
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Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Could never get over Don Logan being Gandhi - dunno why everyone was so afraid of the little squirt. All Ray Winstone needed to do was chuck him in the pool
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Well, they did in the end!
Reno
The In Kraut
I thought Ben Kingsley was great but then I think Gandhi is a monumental snooze which never made the slightest impression on me. What keeps Sexy Beast from being a masterpiece for me is that the robbery in the last act is far less interesting than the Pinteresque chamber piece which preceded it. Jonathan Glazer keeps getting better with every film and Under the Skin is his masterpiece so far and Birth is among the most underrated films of the 21st century. I think he's the most interesting British film-maker currently working.
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Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Agree about Under The Skin and willl have to catch up with Birth at some time, but really could not get on with Sexy Beast - though there are bits to love - like Winstone glistening in the pool at the start. Don Logan just did not convince for me. Posh actors being all hard never really has, though I'm sure there are exceptions
Reno
The In Kraut
Kingsley always said that he based much of Don Logan on his grandmother, an East End rag trader and the family on his mother's side was pretty rough by his account. His father was Indian GP who drank himself to death and they lived in Salford, so not that posh.
