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What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

B Movie

One man's story of living the dream, which in this case was his participation in the Kreuzberg scene of 1980s West Berlin (the man is Mark Reeder, who was Factory records' man in the former Prussian capital). Essentially a record of an utterly lost world at this point: contemporary hipsterdom is naught but a bastardised version of this sort of set-up.

Nena, Einsturzende Neubaten, New Order and Nick Cave all come and go, but the real star is the scene itself, and the city itself, which was an utterly different place to what it is today. One scene has graffitists on the western side of the wall being warned by the western cops that their safety cannot be guaranteed if the GDR cops get stroppy with them. And sure enough a GDR border guard pops his head up over the wall to tell them to stop.

Can't say I liked the flippant use of the swastika for shock value in the early scenes; OK it was something some of the punks were into, but it was also a bloody stupid thing to do.
 
Idris2002 said:
B Movie

One man's story of living the dream, which in this case was his participation in the Kreuzberg scene of 1980s West Berlin (the man is Mark Reeder, who was Factory records' man in the former Prussian capital). Essentially a record of an utterly lost world at this point: contemporary hipsterdom is naught but a bastardised version of this sort of set-up.

Nena, Einsturzende Neubaten, New Order and Nick Cave all come and go, but the real star is the scene itself, and the city itself, which was an utterly different place to what it is today. One scene has graffitists on the western side of the wall being warned by the western cops that their safety cannot be guaranteed if the GDR cops get stroppy with them. And sure enough a GDR border guard pops his head up over the wall to tell them to stop.

Can't say I liked the flippant use of the swastika for shock value in the early scenes; OK it was something some of the punks were into, but it was also a bloody stupid thing to do.
Click to expand...
Mark Reeder was also a main player in the burgeoning techno scene in Berlin in the early 90s. He had a record label called MFS which released a lot of early Teutonic techno and trance
Does it cover that too?
 
Orang Utan said:
Mark Reeder was also a main player in the burgeoning techno scene in Berlin in the early 90s. He had a record label called MFS which released a lot of early Teutonic techno and trance
Does it cover that too?
Click to expand...
It does indeed! MFS was named after the Stasi, apparently.

I didn't mention it because I've always regarded rave etc as the music that was so bad you had to be on drugs to listen to it.
 
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Outcast - new TV series . First episode is more than a scene setter ,although performs that role superbly in flashbacks and in its narrative. Seemingly dysfunctional father ,a former victim of abuse by mother , and who has served time for assaulting his daughter links up with anti satanic preacher to assist boy possessed by demons. Beautifully shot, great plot ,and an absolute show stopper of a first episode.
 
Had a friend round for a film all nighter.

We watched A New Leaf by Elaine May, one of the greatest ever comedy films and a reminder of how brilliant Walter Matthau was.

The Witch, because my friend wanted to watch it and I was intrigued enough to see how it holds up for a second viewing. I also put on subtitles because I didn't understand all the dialogue the first time round. I liked it better this time. It's a beautiful piece of film making, however I still can't get to grips with what it says about witches and religion.

10 Cloverfield Lane. 80% twisty, claustrophobic thriller, 20% WTF swerve into Kaiju territory, but fun.

The Visit. Silly found footage horror film to keep us awake after three bottles of wine and worth it for one hilariously gross moment.
 
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Made in America.

Mid-Sixties Godard. There was no one else at all like Godard, he was a true one-off . . . and that was both a good thing and a bad thing, as this film shows.
 
Idris2002 said:
Made in America.

Mid-Sixties Godard. There was no one else at all like Godard, he was a true one-off . . . and that was both a good thing and a bad thing, as this film shows.
Click to expand...
For a minute there I was thinking about the Eddie Murphy/Arsenio Hall film :hmm:
 
Le Feu Follet. Recovering alcoholic decides to commit suicide after deciding bourgeois life is empty and pointless. Very French, very stylish but (unsurprisingly) a bit depressing.
 
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Five episodes into season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead. Starts off slow and boring, but picks up by episode 3.
 
American Horror Story S1 in a big binge. Loved it. Lots of twists and turns and great performances.
Bit far fetched though. Where do all the ghosts get all their clothes and stuff from?
 
The rest of the first half of Fear the Walking Dead S02 and the series is just ok.

The series gets to the point where the world is overrun with zombies and people become competent zombie killers far to quickly, so after a few episodes it isn't that different from The Walking Dead, only that the zombies are less gnarly because they are still a lot more fresh. By the middle of season two this has already settled into the rythm where the lead characters find a refuge where
the top dog turns out to be a maniac and it all goes to shit again.
 
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Episode 1 of Preacher - fun
Some new Game of Thrones - Season 6 has not been up to scratch for me, and I watch the other 5 seasons in the past 6 weeks, so it's fresh.
Outcast - good start to new demonic possession themed show from Robert Kirkman
 
Eden, a low key but very good (if slightly overlong) drama about a Paris DJ whose career runs parallel to that of Daft Punk, but who unlike them never quite makes it. It's the rare film which acknowledged the bitter truth that most artists who chase their dream never become rich and famous and that talent and determination isn't quite enough to get you there. No spectacular rise and fall, just the fact that a little affirmation is more dangerous than outright failure. This may make the film less dramatically satisfying than a lot of films about artists but it also makes it more truthful. Eden makes up for lack of dramatic fireworks by being a very good film about the rave and club scene of the 90s and 00s.

Midnight Special, another underwhelming attempt by Jeff Nichols to channel Stephen Spielberg in general and Close Encounters in particular (this time with a dash of Carpenter's Starman). A great cast keeps it watchable, but ultimately the film never rises above pastiche, doesn't make much sense and ends up somewhere disappointing:
that same shiny parallel universe of last year's sci-fi flop Tomorrowland, it seems.
There is ambiguity and then there is a type of vagueness which masks sloppy story telling and this is the latter.
 
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