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

[inva]

The Big Parade
1925 silent WW1 film directed by King Vidor. Nationalistic fever propels John Gilbert's idle upper class US army recruit to France where he and his unit fling shit at a sergeant, fight the military police and generally piss about, and Gilbert's character falls in love with a French peasant played by Renée Adorée. Then the slightly sardonic romantic comedy is replaced by visceral, savage scenes of war and the jarring switch of tone works perfectly. The various parades of the title whether of patriotic marching bands or of dying soldiers all help create the sense of a crushing relentless momentum that carries the characters towards their fate. A really powerful and well structured film.

 

[inva]

Eroica
Two part 1958 satire of heroism and the Polish experience of WW2 directed by Andrzej Munk. In the first part a drunken deserter from the Polish Home Army in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising accidentally gets roped into acting as a messenger between the resistance and Hungarian soldiers who are considering turning on the Germans. Barring a few good moments this didn't work for me really, the humour mostly fell flat and it seemed like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be, leaning towards absurdist comedy without properly committing to it.

The second part was a big improvement on the first. Towards the end of the war a couple of new arrivals at a prisoner of war camp find it full of soldiers from the regular army who were captured back in the German invasion of 1939 and have been slowly going mad locked up in the camp ever since. One man's legendary escape is their only point of light amid petty disputes over margarine rations and trying to be given solitary confinement to get away from the others. This segment struck a stronger, bleakly funny tone and just felt much better realised. Overall an interesting watch but uneven.

 

[Part 2]

The Monopoly of Viiolence.

The Monopoly of Violence (2020) ⭐ 7.3 | Documentary

1h 26m

www.imdb.com

A look at the Gilet Jaune protests in France from the perspective of activists and police. I wasn't following the news about the protests but this was really good. Starting with protestors watch footage of themselves being attacked by the police, sometimes resulting in loss of eyes, hands etc. Some very graphic scenes of injuries, some interesting perspectives given by observers and the odd few cops thrown in to try to defend their frankly extreme levels of violence.

Not to be confused with The Monopoly on Violence...although that looks interesting too.

 

[Elpenor]

Giddy Stratosphere’s on prime. Quite fun. Got the party scenes down to a tee I think

 

[not-bono-ever]

A night in with the kids and pizza. Watched the 2017 filum Cargo with Martin Freeman . A decent little piece . Not the usual OTT zombie bollocks

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I watched Nobody last night. Was a bit disappointed by it. The total lack of tension reminded me of Taken.

 

[Orang Utan]

I watched Nobody last night. Was a bit disappointed by it. The total lack of tension reminded me of Taken.

Just cos you know they’re both gonna kill everyone? Know what you mean if so, but I enjoyed both immensely all the same

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Just cos you know they’re both gonna kill everyone? Know what you mean if so, but I enjoyed both immensely all the same

Yeah, you never feel like they (or their family) are in real danger as they wade through the bad guys. I enjoyed it until it was obvious it was going to go on in that way.

 

[Orang Utan]

Aye sometimes movies like that feel like you’re watching a video game of me playing a shooter on very easy

 

[Orang Utan]

I’ve been watching some early Bond films and some of the fight scenes look well brutal. There’s no gore like in Taken/John Wick/Nobody, but the fighting looks real, and with consequences, there’s loads of desperate close up scenes where one pugilist is trying to literally push the other’s jaw off and you can see their neck muscles straining

 

[krtek a houby]

A night in with the kids and pizza. Watched the 2017 filum Cargo with Martin Freeman . A decent little piece . Not the usual OTT zombie bollocks

Like the OTT stuff as much as the next person, but yes, this is a good small scale film that doesn't feel like the z standard fare

 

[Chz]

Dune (2021)
Christ on a crutch, I know that because it's a desert world a lot of stuff happens a night but do they really have no outdoor lights anywhere? And Duke Leto is supposed to be one of the richest people in the galaxy, does he not believe in indoor lighting?

Overall I quite liked it, but there's this goddamned trend for everything to be super dark these days and I hate it. Nearly blinded myself going back to regular broadcast afterwards.

 

[T & P]

Finally watched Pig. It’s surprisingly bloody good, isn’t it

 

[inva]

Sweet Smell of Success
Alexander Mackendrick's acidic 1957 noir set in a seething neon-lit New York nighttime ruled over by all-powerful gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (played by Burt Lancaster) who, being creepily possessive and controlling of his younger sister, instructs one of his minions, press agent Sidney Falco (played by Tony Curtis) to break up the relationship between her and a jazz musician. Both Lancaster and Curtis clearly relish playing two utterly repulsive characters - Lancaster radiates cruel power and self regard (and is brilliantly photographed with almost a spider's shadow permantly cast across his face from his glasses), while Curtis, all agitation and darting movement, slithers and oozes his way through the film, pure amoral slime. A totally compelling portrait of corruption, greed and misogyny. Really well shot too, these late black and white films could look astonishingly good.

 

[krtek a houby]

Sweet Smell of Success
Alexander Mackendrick's acidic 1957 noir set in a seething neon-lit New York nighttime ruled over by all-powerful gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (played by Burt Lancaster) who, being creepily possessive and controlling of his younger sister, instructs one of his minions, press agent Sidney Falco (played by Tony Curtis) to break up the relationship between her and a jazz musician. Both Lancaster and Curtis clearly relish playing two utterly repulsive characters - Lancaster radiates cruel power and self regard (and is brilliantly photographed with almost a spider's shadow permantly cast across his face from his glasses), while Curtis, all agitation and darting movement, slithers and oozes his way through the film, pure amoral slime. A totally compelling portrait of corruption, greed and misogyny. Really well shot too, these late black and white films could look astonishingly good.

It's a stunningly good film.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I just finished episode 9 of Yellowjackets. I'm really rather liking it.

 

[Part 2]

Cow. 4 years old n the life of 2 dairy cows. Very little dialogue between the farmhands just cows on a farm with occasional radio playing in the background. It's hard to think of a shittier existence for a species....not that I imagine life for other farm animals to be much better. I'm not vegan and will likely use the milk in the fridge for a brew in the morning but it might not taste the same.

 

[redsquirrel]

Has anyone seen the Chabrol TV series Fantômas? (Reno Sue butchersapron ?)

I'm an big Chabrol fan, but it is from the 80s and the two films of his I've seen period are among his weakest. Poulet au viniagre is ok, if well off his best, while Inspecteur Lavardin is the only Chabrol film that I've watched and would't recommend.


Catching up on past Melbourne Cinematheque seasons, this time Robert Mitchum

Pursued - Very good Raoul Walsh western starring Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright. With Mitchum as the cowboy troubled by his repressed childhood memories, from that period in the 40s/50s where psychology (or at least a version of it) was very popular in Hollywood (and the UK)

Home from the Hill - Vincent Minnelli melodrama with Mitchum as a Texas patriarch with a estranged wife, a legitimate son and an illegitimate son (played by George Peppard). It is very much melodrama but Minnelli just about manages to pull it off. Not great, but interesting enough.

 

[platinumsage]

Dune (2021)
Christ on a crutch, I know that because it's a desert world a lot of stuff happens a night but do they really have no outdoor lights anywhere? And Duke Leto is supposed to be one of the richest people in the galaxy, does he not believe in indoor lighting?

Overall I quite liked it, but there's this goddamned trend for everything to be super dark these days and I hate it. Nearly blinded myself going back to regular broadcast afterwards.

I didn't notice this at all. Is this a telly thing? Do you have an HDR telly and watched an HDR version?

 

[Reno]

Has anyone seen the Chabrol TV series Fantômas? (Reno Sue butchersapron ?)

I'm an big Chabrol fan, but it is from the 80s and the two films of his I've seen period are among his weakest. Poulet au viniagre is ok, if well off his best, while Inspecteur Lavardin is the only Chabrol film that I've watched and would't recommend.

I saw the series on German tv in the early 80s but my memory of it is jumbled up with the 60s movies starring Jean Marais. I believe it was quite good at the time. Juan Luis Buñuel (son of...) co-directed the series and he made some interesting supernatural horror/fantasy films which I haven't seen since the 70s.

 

[redsquirrel]

I saw the series on German tv in the early 80s but my memory of it is jumbled up with the 60s movies starring Jean Marais. I believe it was quite good at the time. Juan Luis Buñuel (son of...) co-directed the series and he made some interesting supernatural horror/fantasy films which I haven't seen since the 70s.

Ta might give it a go then

 

[Reno]

Dune (2021)
Christ on a crutch, I know that because it's a desert world a lot of stuff happens a night but do they really have no outdoor lights anywhere? And Duke Leto is supposed to be one of the richest people in the galaxy, does he not believe in indoor lighting?

Overall I quite liked it, but there's this goddamned trend for everything to be super dark these days and I hate it. Nearly blinded myself going back to regular broadcast afterwards.

You keep complaining about this with films where I had no problems seeing anything. There isn't a trend for films being dark more than at other times, check out the films shot by Gordon Willis in the 70s (The Godfather, Klute, All the President's Men), he was known as The Prince if Darkness.

Pretty sure it must be your tv settings:

Why HDR Looks Too Dark on Your TV, and How to Fix It

Wait, isn’t that fancy new TV supposed to deliver bright, beautiful images? If yours is a little dimmer than expected, we can help.

www.wired.com

 

[Orang Utan]

some films are quite dark, esp action scenes in some Marvel films. Endgame was dark as fuck in the big battle scenes. You couldn’t even work out where exactly the action is happening

 

[Reno]

some films are quite dark, esp action scenes in some Marvel films. Endgame was dark as fuck in the big battle scenes. You couldn’t even work out where exactly the action is happening

Some films are supposed to be dark and I watch a lot of horror. I recently watched the new Resident Evil film and could see fuck all, then I realised that it was my new media player which was crap. I then watched it via my old blu-ray player and while still overall dark, I could make everything out.

I had no problems with the MCU films either and I watched them all in 3D which would make everything a little darker.

 

[Orang Utan]

Some films are supposed to be dark and I watch a lot of horror. I recently watched the new Resident Evil film and could see fuck all, then I realised that it was my new media player which was crap. I then watched it via my old blu-ray player and while still overall dark, I could make everything out.

I had no problems with the MCU films either and I watched them all in 3D which would make everything a little darker.

I think it was the 3D element that made them especially dark. Dunno why.
Is Blu Ray noticeably better than other formats? Don’t think I’ve seen owt on it

 

[pesh]

i just think all the modern movies are getting graded on super high end HDR monitors with huge amounts of detail being visible in the darker areas that then get utterly lost when viewed on non HDR TVs, especially older ones and cheaper ones...

 

[Reno]

I think it was the 3D element that made them especially dark. Dunno why.
Is Blu Ray noticeably better than other formats? Don’t think I’ve seen owt on it

The 3D glasses are dark, it's a bit like wearing sunglasses at the cinema, so for a modern 3D presentation the image gets brightened but overall it still is darker. The glasses you get at the cinema are passive 3D and not great. At the beginning of the current 3D wave they handed out active glasses, which are synchronised to the projection and they are far better quality. But they have to be returned at the end because they are expensive and too many people stole or damaged them, so they changed to passive 3D. I've got active glasses for my set up.

Blu-ray is HD and noticeably better than DVD or and other SD presentations. I'm a home theatre nerd, I watch everything on my projector and at that size (3 meters wide) DVDs look dreadful, while Blu-rays look pretty close to a theatrical screening in terms of detail and resolution. If something is dark onscreen, DVD/SD lacks the subtlety to pick out details in dark scenes.

Now we are on to UHD/4K and the improvements are there but more marginal than from DVD to Blu-ray. With that they can go darker in mastering a film as the color and brightness spectrum is far larger, but you have to make sure you calibrate your telly properly

 

[Orang Utan]

Aye, I had to adjust my tv settings when I watched that white walker battle in the last series of GoT - it went from murky invisibility to murky visibility in an instant. Can’t remember which setting. Might have been a sport one.

 

[Orang Utan]

(Btw I’ve never noticed any difference between HD and SD and I used to work in telly - maybe I just have shitty equipment - £400 Sony Bravia)

 

[Reno]

(Btw I’ve never noticed any difference between HD and SD and I used to work in telly - maybe I just have shitty equipment - £400 Sony Bravia)

It depends on the screen size. With a screen of up to 32" it's not that noticeable, though with a direct comparison you still should see a difference. It's not just detail, it's also contrast and color. For a 30s - 50s Technicolor movie the colors will have to be desaturated for an SD presentation, otherwise they bleed and there isn't much I love as much as vintage Technicolor.

For me film is a visual medium not just a plot delivery system. Visually inventive films are what I respond to the most, so I'm fairly obsessive about the presentation. For a restauration of Dario Argento's Suspiria (maybe the most eye-popping colour film ever made) which was in the works for years, I paid a lot of money for a Blu-ray restoration from the US after the film had gotten many unsatisfactory releases (4 of which I own). Would love to upgrade my set-up and collection to UHD/4K but I don't have to money and blu-ray is still good enough for me.