List the films you've seen at the cinema: 2012

[Gramsci]

Yes it is difficult to describe. It is very good piece of film made for cinema. Glad I caught it on big screen.

 

[Sue]

Its not Cronenberg at his best. The last one of his I really liked was "Spider". Which does not seem to be that well known.

I like Croenenberg (though won't be going to see this as it looks rubbish) but thought Spider was awful. And very, very boring.

 

[redsquirrel]

Shame - very disappointing, went in with high expectations after Hunger and this definitely did not meet them. Looks great but but it doesn't hold together at all.

 

[Gramsci]

"Rampart"

http://rampartmovie.com/

Woody Harrelson as violent old school cop. His life starts to fall apart after he is filmed beating up a black guy who crashes into his police car.

This film is well shot. Looks good on big screen. Good performances as well. The Cop is so horrible I could not feel any sympathy for him at all. Kind of left me nonplussed about the film. As a film about macho masculine men it has some interest. Its written by James Ellroy so that is no surprise.

The other problem I have with film is that it implies that its rogue cops like Brown who are the racist ones. They have not moved with the times. The possibility that its structural reasons of US society that mean more black men are banged up is not entertained. The TV series The Wire dealt with this better.

It can be taken as a film about masculinity. One of Ellroys obsessions. But does not say anything new. Also I have the feeling in parts of film that Brown is bad boy. But hey you somehow can admire him for being straight talking and non PC.

There are parallels with Shame. Including him going to Sex Club and seeking soulless one night stands.

Best bits are him sparring with Weaver. She wont take any of his nonsense. Undercuts his macho image of himself he likes to project.

 

[Kaka Tim]

took 12 yr old daughter to see 'the woman in black'.
Fun creepy ghost story with lots of thrills (i actually shouted out loud in suprise/shock at one point ) but deep it ain't.
She loved it.

 

[Callie]

woman in black - poo

muppets - pooing poo hole.

 

[Gramsci]

"Hadewijch" by Bruno Dumont



Saw this at Lumiere. Teenage girl tries to become a nun and is chucked out for being to zealous. Goes home to her wealthy parents and gets involved with a boy from the banlieues (projects on outskirts of Paris where the immigrants live.) She learns about Islam from his extremist brother.

Cinema at its most austere. Visually wonderful. Particularly like the way Dumont concentrates on peoples faces. He also uses straight on shots that are framed by the screen rather than making the illusion the edge of the screen is not there. Some wonderful shots that are reminiscent of religious paintings. But using ordinary people like Pasolini did in his film of Christ.

Im not into religion but this is riveting exploration of faith. Sounds a turn off put its not. Requires concentration to watch but its worth it.

Revolves around the idea that God is both present and absent. God/ Christ is most manifest when he appears to be absent. This is a concept in both Islam and Christianity.

 

[dynamicbaddog]

The Woman in Black. Enjoyable enough, good ghost story but could have done with a few more jumpy moments..

 

[Gramsci]

http://michaelfilm.com/en/

"Michael"

Off to the weird land that is Austria to see film about keeping someone in the cellar.

This is in the style of that other great Austrian director Haneke. Spare and uncompromising. It tells of a Austrian who keeps a young boy imprisoned in his bunker under his house. You are not shown much in the way of sexual violence. Everything is implied and suggested rather than shown. This film is not exploitative shocker. It is very disturbing. Excellent film if u can stomach it.

Shot in a disturbing so bright highly light way that forces you to look.

It is creepy as life on the surface seems so normal on the surface . Boringly mundane and routine. Its almost as though no one really wants to look beneath the surface.

I wonder with the Austrian films like this Ive seen if the background is Austria Nazi past. After WW2 Austria got "victim" status. Part of the Cold War deal. So Austria unlike Germany never faced its Nazi past. Everything after the war continued as "normal". But at some level everyone knew it was not. Why Haneke ended up making films in France. He brought up issues that Austria did not want to look at. Why I think his film White Ribbon is about Austria not Germany.

 

[Reno]

The Muppets. Felty happiness ! I had a big grin plastered on my face from beginning to end.

 

[pennimania]

You've Been trumped (at our film club)

worthy but flawed.

 

[moonsi til]

I saw 'John Carter' in 3D at the weekend. I have no idea hat I was expecting as it was chosen to take a 10yr boy and his dad to. At 132 minutes I was also worried about boredom & falling asleep and none of this happened. I thought the film was superb and we all came out grinning.

ETA:....well see below! LOL

 

[Reno]

I saw 'John Carpenter' in 3D at the weekend. .

If only.

 

[moonsi til]

...oh...what have I said!!.......goes off to google ...

 

[Reno]

I think you went to see "John Carter". John Carpenter is the (once great) director of scfi and horror classics like The Thing and Halloween.

 

[dynamicbaddog]

Payback Season

I was looking forward to this, it has Adam Deacon in it, some of it was filmed around Millwall FC and Harry Shotta did the tune for the end credits, but it was a bit of a let down really. It's about a footballer from a housing estate played by Adam Deacon who in trying to keep in touch with his roots falls foul of a local gang leader demanding huge sums of money of him. I like Adam Deacon but I thought this was all a bit too cliched. Very violent and grim in places but they have tried to make it look like a stylish music vid which doesn't quite work.

 

[Lea]

"Rampart"

http://rampartmovie.com/

Woody Harrelson as violent old school cop. His life starts to fall apart after he is filmed beating up a black guy who crashes into his police car.

This film is well shot. Looks good on big screen. Good performances as well. The Cop is so horrible I could not feel any sympathy for him at all. Kind of left me nonplussed about the film. As a film about macho masculine men it has some interest. Its written by James Ellroy so that is no surprise.

The other problem I have with film is that it implies that its rogue cops like Brown who are the racist ones. They have not moved with the times. The possibility that its structural reasons of US society that mean more black men are banged up is not entertained. The TV series The Wire dealt with this better.

It can be taken as a film about masculinity. One of Ellroys obsessions. But does not say anything new. Also I have the feeling in parts of film that Brown is bad boy. But hey you somehow can admire him for being straight talking and non PC.

There are parallels with Shame. Including him going to Sex Club and seeking soulless one night stands.

Best bits are him sparring with Weaver. She wont take any of his nonsense. Undercuts his macho image of himself he likes to project.

I watched this last week but really didn't like it much.

SPOILER ALERT:

I didn't understand the part where Harrelson shoots the person chasing after the thief but lets the thief run off with the money.

It was well acted. Not much happened. It was more of a character study.

 

[Kidda]

Man on a ledge

''shut down the block, there's a man on a ledge''

Genius stuff.

 

[Orang Utan]

sounds well high concept

 

[dynamicbaddog]

mockumentary -
The Devil Inside


Another lame horror film that I struggled to stay awake through..

 

[Reno]

^ This got some of the worst reviews of any film released this year.

 

[Gramsci]

"In Darkness"

Moving true story of Pole who tries to save the Jews who sought refuge in the sewers where he works. Good as this guy is not a saint. He is petty criminal who first sees the Jews as a way to make some money. When they run out of money he finds he cannot desert them. A tale of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances who shows true heroism. Holland , a veteran Polish director, on top form.

I was chatting to a Pole today about the film. She said her grandparents were in Treblinka. They were not Jews. The Germans also put Poles in camps as well. As she said people in West dont know everything that happened during war in East. Also she said the people in West often think Poles are implicated in killing of Jews. But it was not like that in WW2.

A note on the history. This was in Lvov. It was then part of Poland. Its now in Ukraine. It had mixed Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish population. The Ukrainians supported the Germans. Some joined the Ukrainian SS and helped the Germans kill Jews. As is shown in film. During the war the Ukrainians and Poles also fought an ethnic war between themselves that went on after the war. Ending when Stalin redrew the borders. Many Poles left to go to west Poland that had been part of Germany before the war. My Polish friend says that there are some Poles left in Lvov.

 

[editor]

Bill Cunningham New York.

Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller—who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham's enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace.

Fantastic film.

 

[Gramsci]

"The Mill and the Cross"

Saw this film by Lech Majewski on Saturday at National Gallery. ( BTW they have full size cinema which show films on a regular basis. Check NG website. And its cheap). A film about Breugels painting "The Way To Calvary". Stunning recreation of the painting and goes into the religious and political background to it. The film also recreates the life of that time- in all its brutality of political and religious conflict.

Breugel puts Christs death in contemporary time. The painting is populated by ordinary people. I didnt realise what a "democratic" painting it was.

Unfortunately will be released in rest of Europe but here distribution rights have not been sold.

 

[Gramsci]

Bill Cunningham New York.


Fantastic film.

This looks good. Didnt realise. Its still on. Never knew about this guy.

 

[editor]

This looks good. Didnt realise. Its still on. Never knew about this guy.

He's 80 and he's out on the streets snapping photos, and cycling around the mad thoroughfares of NYC. Really interesting guy with a great attitude towards celebrities.

 

[Gramsci]

"Ordet" directed by Dreyer. One of those famous directors I have heard about but not seen. This looked like restored version by BFI. I saw it at BFI on Screen One. Quite an experience. Does demand to be seen on cinema screen. I notice the youtube trailer gets the Black and White wrong. Does not show the subtle use that Dreyer makes of it.

It is very odd film. About uptight religious Danes. Miserable lot. . However I got drawn into this quite surreal looking world. Its set mainly in a farmhouse. But everything looks so set out and clean. The characters move slowly and everything looks weirdly slightly unreal. As though this is taking place in another world from ours.

Definitely unlike anything else u will see at the multiplex. One of those films that I didnt want to end as it took u to a different place.

 

[Reno]

Bill Cunningham New York.


Fantastic film.

I also really want to see his. It's coming out on DVD over the next couple of weeks and its on my Lovefilm list.

 

[DexterTCN]

21 Jump Street. Which I did not want to go and see - but it's brilliant, extremely funny and quite intelligent.

 

[Gramsci]

Yes the trailer is funny.