Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Would love to watch Dr Phibes or Masque Of The Red Death on BluRay then!
What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)
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Reno
The In Kraut
Working my way through the most acclaimed films of 2021 as they become available online, I watched The Worst Person in the World, the latest film by Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier. Like many great films, it's one of those not easily summed up in one sentence. It's a character study and one of a fairly unexceptional person, a young woman approaching 30 who hasn't yet found her place in the world. I found it incredibly absorbing, wonderfully written and acted, the details all feel spot on and occasionally it strays into the fantastic (best magic mushrooms scene ever!).
This deserves all the praise it got, if you are intrigued, don't hesitate. It left me a little happier, despite not being that happy a film. I recognised aspects of myself in that character, even while pushing 60 and it made me feel alright about life having not turned out quite how I hoped. Satisfyingly non-aspirational, the film is how we all muddle our way through life without a users manual and does so with humour and a great deal of empathy for its flawed protagonist. Was going to link to the trailer, but it rather bafflingly sells this as a romance, when actually it's about the mundane realities which make and break romantic relationships, with emphasis on the latter.
Talking of most acclaimed films, I tried Memoria and I bailed after 45 minutes. I really tried, but Apichatpong Weerasethakul films are just not for me.
This deserves all the praise it got, if you are intrigued, don't hesitate. It left me a little happier, despite not being that happy a film. I recognised aspects of myself in that character, even while pushing 60 and it made me feel alright about life having not turned out quite how I hoped. Satisfyingly non-aspirational, the film is how we all muddle our way through life without a users manual and does so with humour and a great deal of empathy for its flawed protagonist. Was going to link to the trailer, but it rather bafflingly sells this as a romance, when actually it's about the mundane realities which make and break romantic relationships, with emphasis on the latter.
Talking of most acclaimed films, I tried Memoria and I bailed after 45 minutes. I really tried, but Apichatpong Weerasethakul films are just not for me.
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Chz
Stark Raving Sane
I do know how to tune the telly. For example, No Time to Die and (oddly) Ghostbusters looked fantastic and actually justified splurging on a high end OLED set.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
Whereas people left the theatres complaining about Dune being dark. I think the fact that it's intentionally super desaturated really works against it there, even if it is Villeneuve's "vision". I'm hardly alone there. I've only complained in particular about two films (The Green Knight and Dune) and a casual google will tell you it's not a novel complaint.
I will admit that I have a thing about too dark films in general though. What seems new is that it seems every other film I watch has a scene or two that are too dark for no reason. Used to be a rare thing. What bugs me is this - HDR was supposed to make it better, but the way they've tuned a lot transfers seems to make it worse instead. The SDR versions of the films have godawful blowouts instead and I'm not sure which is worse. I think the whole issue is that HDR has been designed around watching in a true Home Cinema environment, and a lot of it just doesn't work in a standard living room with ambient light.
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Reno
The In Kraut
The internet has just given more people the ability to complain and most of those people are clueless about film history. I remember people whining about The Godfather looking too dark and desaturated and that was four decades ago. Ever heard of film noir, a genre most popular in the 1940s ? Mostly in black and white and all about shadows and darkness. I saw Dune (at the cinema) and The Green Knight (at home) and both looked fine to me, as in I could see everything I was meant to see to follow the plot. I also thought both films were among the most beautiful looking films of 2021. If that type of film is too dark for you, maybe stick to romantic comedies ?
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DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Maybe stick to romantic comedies ?
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
Lots of people compared the GoT finale lighting to LOTR.
Maybe there is some trend whereby people are assumed to have better TVs these days so the director goes darker to be more realistic?
Maybe there is some trend whereby people are assumed to have better TVs these days so the director goes darker to be more realistic?
imposs1904
Thread Killa'
Rewatched Battle Royale.
Watching it again after all these years, you see it through new eyes when you have a 13 year old and a 10 year old.
#JustSaying
Watching it again after all these years, you see it through new eyes when you have a 13 year old and a 10 year old.
#JustSaying
Reno
The In Kraut
Red Rocket, the latest one by Sean Baker (Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project). Baker is influenced by 70s new Hollywood films, especially the likes of Hal Ashby and John Cassavetes and I generally love his films but didn't like this.
His films are character studies and his central characters usually work in the sex industry but that doesn't tend to be the only thing of interest about them. Here its main character, a grifter and ex-porn actor, appears entirely defined by his former profession. I don't need characters to be sympathetic and this dude certainly isn't, I just didn't find him interesting and the main plot strand is queasy. Much of his time is spent trying to get a teenage girl he sleeps with, to work in porn with him. To the film's credit, she does have agency and appears to be far smarter than him. But I didn't care to follow this one-note character for over two hours on a minimally plotter quest I was rooting against. As always with Sean Baker, the acting is excellent and the cinematography is gorgeous.
Hopefully his next film will be a return to form, Starlet and The Florida Project are among my favourite films of the 21st century.
His films are character studies and his central characters usually work in the sex industry but that doesn't tend to be the only thing of interest about them. Here its main character, a grifter and ex-porn actor, appears entirely defined by his former profession. I don't need characters to be sympathetic and this dude certainly isn't, I just didn't find him interesting and the main plot strand is queasy. Much of his time is spent trying to get a teenage girl he sleeps with, to work in porn with him. To the film's credit, she does have agency and appears to be far smarter than him. But I didn't care to follow this one-note character for over two hours on a minimally plotter quest I was rooting against. As always with Sean Baker, the acting is excellent and the cinematography is gorgeous.
Hopefully his next film will be a return to form, Starlet and The Florida Project are among my favourite films of the 21st century.
The Naked City
1948 police procedural and showcase of location shooting directed by Jules Dassin and part of the phenomenal hot streak of films he made from the mid 40s to the mid 50s, though I think this is my least favourite so far. Very much presents itself as more of a Mark Hellinger (the producer) film than a Dassin one, and maybe that accounts for its more journalistic tone as a look through the window at New York life, especially compared with the intensity of Dassin's work both before and after this. A mostly effective and unusual take on the genre, emphasisng the procedural aspect and with some strong set pieces punctuating an otherwise fairly thin crime story. The end sequence in particular is great.
Le Combat Dans L'île
1962 political thriller directed by Alain Cavalier made in the context of the war in Algeria and the OAS, mixing right wing terror and a love triangle. Jean-Louis Trintignant's disaffected bourgeois reactionary seeks to arrest the decline of Western civilisation by exploding a left wing politician with a bazooka. He is then forced into hiding along with his wife played by Romy Schneider at the remote home of an old friend where both his dreams of conservative revolution and his relationship with his wife unravel. It's an interesting film, supposedly something of a response to the right wingers among the Cahiers Du Cinema lot, unfortunately it fails to really make the most of any of its potentially promising threads.
As anyone who's seen The Conformist knows, Trintignant really had the part of fascist worm nailed and is very watchable in this earlier film, and I liked Romy Schneider in this too but she doesn't have enough to do. Was nicely shot though and overall has enough to recommend it as a lesser new wave film, just far from an essential one.
1948 police procedural and showcase of location shooting directed by Jules Dassin and part of the phenomenal hot streak of films he made from the mid 40s to the mid 50s, though I think this is my least favourite so far. Very much presents itself as more of a Mark Hellinger (the producer) film than a Dassin one, and maybe that accounts for its more journalistic tone as a look through the window at New York life, especially compared with the intensity of Dassin's work both before and after this. A mostly effective and unusual take on the genre, emphasisng the procedural aspect and with some strong set pieces punctuating an otherwise fairly thin crime story. The end sequence in particular is great.
Le Combat Dans L'île
1962 political thriller directed by Alain Cavalier made in the context of the war in Algeria and the OAS, mixing right wing terror and a love triangle. Jean-Louis Trintignant's disaffected bourgeois reactionary seeks to arrest the decline of Western civilisation by exploding a left wing politician with a bazooka. He is then forced into hiding along with his wife played by Romy Schneider at the remote home of an old friend where both his dreams of conservative revolution and his relationship with his wife unravel. It's an interesting film, supposedly something of a response to the right wingers among the Cahiers Du Cinema lot, unfortunately it fails to really make the most of any of its potentially promising threads.
As anyone who's seen The Conformist knows, Trintignant really had the part of fascist worm nailed and is very watchable in this earlier film, and I liked Romy Schneider in this too but she doesn't have enough to do. Was nicely shot though and overall has enough to recommend it as a lesser new wave film, just far from an essential one.
Buddy Bradley
Pantheistic solipsist
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - ironically I couldn't recall any of this film, despite having seen it before at some point. I'm not really a fan of Carrey at all, but Winslet is brilliant and the overall whirlwind of the film carries you along with enough distractions and big ideas to ignore the occasional duff notes.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Watched it and really enjoyed it, though afterwards I had to google the ending because I didn’t know if it was a case of ‘left open to interpretation’, or ‘I must be missing something here or might be too thick to get this kind of film’.
I wouldn’t necessarily say I feel cheated by what the director says he intended with the ending, though I would still hope there’s at least one logical explanation for it in his mind even if he’ll not share it, rather than writing a confusing conclusion with a number of random curved balls under the pretext of wanting to generate debate and critical thinking among the audiences.
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
Silly little (70 mins) film about time travel in a very limited sense. It's great fun to see them explore the concept, and much silliness (in a good way) ensues. Limited budget, sets, etc, but it doesn't need any of that to be great.
Silly little (70 mins) film about time travel in a very limited sense. It's great fun to see them explore the concept, and much silliness (in a good way) ensues. Limited budget, sets, etc, but it doesn't need any of that to be great.
Reno
The In Kraut
I watched the new Scream (5), which was solid. I read complaints that this one goes too meta, which is a little silly as the Scream films have always been based on a meta-premise and the way it addresses current trends around movie culture is reasonably spot on and liked the motive for the killings when it's revealed. Nice to see the old gang back, though they play a secondary role to the new characters. Overall it's a fun ride, even if it doesn't do anything particularly groundbreaking. This has always been the slickest of all the slasher franchises and also the most consistent with only Scream 3 being a dud. Apparently a 6th film is already in the works.
Fanatic
1965 Hammer suspense thriller directed by Silvio Narizzano. Stefanie Powers plays Patricia Carroll who before marrying her current boyfriend pays a respectful visit to the strictly religious mother of her former fiance who died in a car crash some years earlier. The mother, played by Talulah Bankhead, although welcoming Patricia, insists on total compliance with her pious strictures but what begins as tiresome demands become more and more alarming. The tense and twisting narrative is well scripted and directed and it features a strong cast, especially the scene stealing performance of Bankhead who is totally compelling. Enjoyed it a lot.
The Human Condition Part 1: No Greater Love
1959 brutal and relentlessly bleak wartime drama set during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria directed by Masaki Kobayashi. Kaji, acted with total conviction by Tatsuya Nakadai, is a pacifist employee of a steel company (I think it was) who is given the chance to avoid being conscripted into the army by accepting a position overseeing a section of a labour camp in order to implement the liberal managerialist techniques he has been advocating for. He sees an opportunity to improve and rationalise the treatment of the Chinese forced labour, and thereby improve efficiency. His self-assuredness soon crumbles when faced with the sadism of the Japanese civilian and military administration and with the enslaved Chinese for whom escape is unaccountably more attractive than 'humane' captivity and he finds his professed humanism hopelessly compromised by the role has has taken.
A despairing, angry film, it's immensely well composed and powerful although at 3 hours or so running time for just this first part it's an exhausting watch.
1965 Hammer suspense thriller directed by Silvio Narizzano. Stefanie Powers plays Patricia Carroll who before marrying her current boyfriend pays a respectful visit to the strictly religious mother of her former fiance who died in a car crash some years earlier. The mother, played by Talulah Bankhead, although welcoming Patricia, insists on total compliance with her pious strictures but what begins as tiresome demands become more and more alarming. The tense and twisting narrative is well scripted and directed and it features a strong cast, especially the scene stealing performance of Bankhead who is totally compelling. Enjoyed it a lot.
The Human Condition Part 1: No Greater Love
1959 brutal and relentlessly bleak wartime drama set during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria directed by Masaki Kobayashi. Kaji, acted with total conviction by Tatsuya Nakadai, is a pacifist employee of a steel company (I think it was) who is given the chance to avoid being conscripted into the army by accepting a position overseeing a section of a labour camp in order to implement the liberal managerialist techniques he has been advocating for. He sees an opportunity to improve and rationalise the treatment of the Chinese forced labour, and thereby improve efficiency. His self-assuredness soon crumbles when faced with the sadism of the Japanese civilian and military administration and with the enslaved Chinese for whom escape is unaccountably more attractive than 'humane' captivity and he finds his professed humanism hopelessly compromised by the role has has taken.
A despairing, angry film, it's immensely well composed and powerful although at 3 hours or so running time for just this first part it's an exhausting watch.
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Hardly new but I have the loan of a Disney + login so enjoyed watching The French Connection (and the sequel) for the first time over the weekend.
Particularly enjoyed the cat and mouse stalking on the streets of New York and down in the subway.
One benefit of these older films is the directors were happy to get them done in about 1:45, modern films go on far too long!
Think I’ll see what else is on that platform that’s of interest.
Particularly enjoyed the cat and mouse stalking on the streets of New York and down in the subway.
One benefit of these older films is the directors were happy to get them done in about 1:45, modern films go on far too long!
Think I’ll see what else is on that platform that’s of interest.
surreybrowncap
“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand"
The French Connection is on Talking Pictures Tv this evening at 9.05….
Looking forward to seeing it again after several years.
But you usually can’t go wrong with Hackman.
Recently viewed the excellent The Conversation
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry
BAFTA winning adaptation of the BS Johnson novel. It’s a very turn off the century Brit flick, deliberately stilted and plain spoken about Mr Malry’s attempts to use the principles of double entry bookkeeping to chart his own life. Rather funny.
BAFTA winning adaptation of the BS Johnson novel. It’s a very turn off the century Brit flick, deliberately stilted and plain spoken about Mr Malry’s attempts to use the principles of double entry bookkeeping to chart his own life. Rather funny.
I've now watched Part 2: Road to Eternity
Another three hours done, only three more to go! Kaji has his exemption from military service revoked and late in the war is put through basic training in the Kwantung Army as it awaits the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. Less complex and conflicted than the first part, unlike the Chinese labourers he oversaw previously now it's Kaji imprisoned in a camp and while still insubordinate and protective of those he sees as weaker, ultimately he is simply trying to survive the cliques and vindictive abuse of the idle army. Also unlike the Chinese labourers he is resigned and dismissive of plans to escape.
This part of the trilogy is maybe more conventional but also more poetic - beautifully shot by Yoshio Miyajima, through the feverish claustrophobic barracks and sweeping over vast barren landscapes and then crouching and crawling with the soldiers burrowed into the earth. It's the ending which really makes this work, the eventual confrontation is very brief and you feel it almost erases the previous two and a half hours or so as if they were totally irrelevant - like the earthworks they've spent ages building which the Soviet tanks simply roll over. Very effective I thought.
Buddy Bradley
Pantheistic solipsist
The Power of the Dog (2021, Netflix) - not bad, the acting and scenery were great but the story is pretty slight.
Reno
The In Kraut
I hoped I would disagree with belboid and Sue on Liquorish Pizza, considering there aren't many things I love more than a good period piece taking place in the 70s. I was mostly bored and left bewildered as to why PT Anderson made auch a meticulously produced film around such a thin premise. The relationship between the two main characters must have meant something to him, but it meant nothing to me. I'm not even offended like some of the twitterati, offence would at least relieved the boredom. The acting, the production design, music and cinematography all are first class, revolving around a big, fat nothing. I get the concept of a character study and and hang out film but the characters and the vignettes have to be more engaging.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
I know it's not actually related in anything other than name, but I really really really wish Disney + would stick on 'the London connection'.
I assume it's a disney film, I saw it at the cinema as a double bill with the aristocats or rescuers. Never heard of seen anything about it ever since, but the music has stuck with me all these years. It's probably a terrible film.
Epona
Sonic: 1 Nov 2006 - 8 Jan 2022
Tonight I have been exploring the Plex catalogue of freebies, which reminds me of visiting a Blockbuster back in the day but finding all the new releases had already been rented out and then rummaging through shelves of stuff a lot of which was straight to VHS releases that you'd never heard of - some good films on the shelves, but you have to search a bit to find them (or just settle in for an evening of cheesy horror films, which I am not averse to).
Anyway, tonight I have watched The Penitent Man which is a (mostly) action-light dialogue-heavy tale of time travel and the paradoxes and moral issues therein (I'll watch anything related to time travel tbh and I thought it was OK, albeit presenting a grim view of humanity).
I followed that up with The Way Back which was kind of depressing tbh and about 40 minutes too long IMO. Also Saoirse Ronan really is in everything. I realised about half way through that I had seen the latter half of it on TV at some point.
Anyway, tonight I have watched The Penitent Man which is a (mostly) action-light dialogue-heavy tale of time travel and the paradoxes and moral issues therein (I'll watch anything related to time travel tbh and I thought it was OK, albeit presenting a grim view of humanity).
I followed that up with The Way Back which was kind of depressing tbh and about 40 minutes too long IMO. Also Saoirse Ronan really is in everything. I realised about half way through that I had seen the latter half of it on TV at some point.
Reno
The In Kraut
This is one of the rare remakes of a classic film which fully justifies its existence and I'd place it alongside the great movie musicals of any period. It's also Spielberg's best film in at least a couple of decades.
I liked the Robert Wise film as a delivery system for Jerome Robbins' choreography and for what I think is the most gorgeous score of any musical. The 60s film's graphic mid-century look can also be beautiful but its artificiality jars when considering the subject matter. The browned up cast members have looked bad for a long time, while the "tough" gang members were always impossible to take seriously. Apart from Rita Moreno, every lead actor in the original was miscast. The only aspect where the original equals the remake is in the choreography, otherwise the new version is a huge improvement in every way. While in the original was mostly confined to a bunch of artificial studio sets, here the characters roam and dance through a bustling reconstruction of late 50s NYC. Now that the Spielberg film exists, I doubt I will ever go back to the original.
I'm not going over every aspect where this scores over the old movie as it strikes me as obvious how much better the cast and the dialogue are here or where this feels like a movie while the original resembles a filmed stage play. Just one aspect as a fan of the original musical is how alive the score sounds here when compared to the "Marni Nixoned" original, that in itself is a total joy.
Kaboom - Mubi. Frankly bizarre film about a student who eats a biscuit at a party and gets wrapped up in supernatural happenings. Did it really happen or was he tripping all along? An entertaining enough watch but I probably wouldn't bother again unless I myself had been indulging.
The Matrix. As the last person in the world who hasn't seen the Matrix, I thought I would watch it. Frankly I thought it was underwhelming although my sister pointed out that it was revolutionary at the time. I'm not so sure.
Now debating between Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Dune.
The Matrix. As the last person in the world who hasn't seen the Matrix, I thought I would watch it. Frankly I thought it was underwhelming although my sister pointed out that it was revolutionary at the time. I'm not so sure.
Now debating between Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Dune.
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Snap. Its Gregg Araki doing his thing and certainly passes 90 minutes relatively entertainingly. Though I personally prefer Splendor.
I, Olga - film about a (real life) Checoslovakian mass murderer who drove a truck into loads of people. Its beautifully shot in black and white and with the great physical performance from the lead actor. Well worth watching.
Apart from that finishing off the Robert Mitchum season
- Out of the Past - what can one say but that it is one of the greatest noir's ever made and if you have not seen it you need to.
- The Sundowners - Mitchum and Kerr playing Aussies between the wars. Searching too much for that down under flavour at times but the cast is quality enough to make a decent watch
- Where Danger Lives - another noir flick, this time with Mitchum playing a doctor taking for a ride. Watchable but not in the same league as Out of the Past
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Hellbender (2021). A surprisingly original and enjoyable arthouse-like supernatural horror about a witch trying to raise her witch daughter in present day rural forest America. Would never expect to see rock-playing witches in a film, among other themes. Beautifully shot and the right mix of drama and horror. On Shudder currently.
www.rottentomatoes.com
Hellbender | Rotten Tomatoes
A teen and her mother live simply in a home in the woods, spending their time making metal music. A chance encounter with a fellow teen causes her to uncover a connection between her family and witchcraft, which causes a rift with her mother.
Reno
The In Kraut
Bonjour Tristesse, 1958 film based on the Francoise Sagan novel. This very European story about a libertine Father/Daughter combo breaking hearts on the French Riviera is an odd fit for a Hollywood film of the 50s. Things are often spelled out too much, the Juliette Greco performance of title song shoehorned into the film is ludicrous and David Niven and Deborah Kerr don't make the most convincing French people but it works better than it should. It's mainly worth watching for Jean Seberg in her second lead role. She truly lights up the screen and her iconic role in Godard's Breathless is almost the same character, a couple of years older and gone slightly more amoral.
Seberg was a protege of the notoriously difficult director Otto Preminger and after casting the inexperienced actress in his Joan of Arc film the critics still had their knives out for her second Preminger film, she got some terrible reviews for this. Unlike her two co-stars, she's perfectly cast and wonderful, she is the main reason to watch this. Nice Saul Bass title sequence too.
Seberg was a protege of the notoriously difficult director Otto Preminger and after casting the inexperienced actress in his Joan of Arc film the critics still had their knives out for her second Preminger film, she got some terrible reviews for this. Unlike her two co-stars, she's perfectly cast and wonderful, she is the main reason to watch this. Nice Saul Bass title sequence too.
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May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
Rocks. Moving and funny and absorbing, brilliantly played by the young cast.
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