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

The Act of Killing this morning. I'd read a little but was completely unprepared for how bizarre it is. Brilliant.

Le Passe/The Past this evening. Same director as A Separation. Lost interest towards the end, just didn't really grab me.
 
A Hijacking ... pretty decent, lowkey Scandi film about the boredom, confusion and greed on all sides when Somali pirates take over a ship. Sort of the anti-Captain Phillips. Got a lot of praise when it came out; I was left feeling a bit meh. Almost everyone in it had a big role in Borgen so you have to aim off for that. But generally the straightforward, no-drama approach works well and feels right and there's some good (but not great) acting.

series 3 of the late, lamented and unfinished THE BORGIAS with Jeremy Irons still camping it up a storm as Pope Alexander, sumptuous frocks all round, great cliffhanging dramas which will never be resolved now because Showtime won't stump up any more cash to make more series. Oh and Francois Arnaud, who is so fine it makes my eyes water.
 
True Detective - Episode 4 - wow, that was a surprise!

Anchorman 2 - has it's moments but overall lazy and pointless (and I so wanted to like it).

Oldboy (Spike Lee) - pointless remake. cheesy. original was much more surreal and devastating.
 
Conviction- sister becomes a lawyer in order to free instantly dislikable oddball brother ( althiough he did look after her when she was young) from wrongful conviction for murder. Run of the mill but at the same time I did hope that she won. Wonder what happened to him when he got out? Personally I wouldn't have wanted to live next door to him.

About the level that I can cope with on a Sunday night after a few beers watching the football.
 
Wake In Fright.

A classic 'lost' Aussie movie about a teachers descent into hell in an outback town, that they actually rediscovered five years ago, but which has only just been released over here at the pics. It isn't coming anywhere near, so homeviewing it was. And bloody good it is too, not really a horror movie, it certainly is horrific. The kangaroo hunting scene is really bloody horrible.

Very well worth going to see at the flix if you can.

oh yes, and the lead, Gary Bond, looked invredibly familiar, but I cant place him from his imdb listings, most annoying

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Half of Pain & Gain. WTF? Profoundly strange. Can't make sense of it. A comedy with some very horrible things going down in it.
Will finish tonight but fear I will still be scratching my head.
 
Wake In Fright.

A classic 'lost' Aussie movie about a teachers descent into hell in an outback town, that they actually rediscovered five years ago, but which has only just been released over here at the pics. It isn't coming anywhere near, so homeviewing it was. And bloody good it is too, not really a horror movie, it certainly is horrific. The kangaroo hunting scene is really bloody horrible.

Very well worth going to see at the flix if you can.

oh yes, and the lead, Gary Bond, looked invredibly familiar, but I cant place him from his imdb listings, most annoying

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Good film, that.

If I was him though, I'd have just stayed in the yabba. The education committee were taking the piss out of him anyway & when he landed in the yabba he soon got in with everyone he needed to get in with. If if was a choice between getting sent to teach in some outback school or staying in the yabba getting hammered and killing kangaroos, I know which one I'd have chosen.
 
Good film, that.

If I was him though, I'd have just stayed in the yabba. The education committee were taking the piss out of him anyway & when he landed in the yabba he soon got in with everyone he needed to get in with. If if was a choice between getting sent to teach in some outback school or staying in the yabba getting hammered and killing kangaroos, I know which one I'd have chosen.
I suspect I'd be a bit crap at killing kangaroo's. Just watched the hunting scene again with the directors commentary. Quite interesting, and all perfectly humane, honestly!

Off to watch The Motel Life now
 
Wake In Fright.

A classic 'lost' Aussie movie about a teachers descent into hell in an outback town, that they actually rediscovered five years ago, but which has only just been released over here at the pics. It isn't coming anywhere near, so homeviewing it was. And bloody good it is too, not really a horror movie, it certainly is horrific. The kangaroo hunting scene is really bloody horrible.

Very well worth going to see at the flix if you can.

oh yes, and the lead, Gary Bond, looked invredibly familiar, but I cant place him from his imdb listings, most annoying
Excellent movie
 
Tomboy (Celine Sciamma 2011) a really lovely film about a complex subject, beautifully shot with terrific performances from the young cast.
 
Few from the week:

Acthung banditi! - no nonsense straight ahead narrative retelling a particular partisan operation around Genoa. The straightforwardness of it imposed both by the story itself and the fact that it was majorly funded by the Italian Communist Party who were insisting on films of this type (and dreary didactic tosh) whilst refusing to help set up a national production and distribution network, then accusing independent directors and producers who they forced into the arms of entrepreneurial capital of being "Hollywood collaborationists who don't even recognise their own servitude". This actually led to the great Italian films of the late 60s and 70s when these directors, free of the PCI began making films questioning everything - films like The Working Class goes to Heaven or which mirrored on the cultural level the PCI's alienation from the class on the political level. Anyway, this is a good example of the partisan genre. Also has Lamberto Maggiorani which is always a good thing. Was also the first film the great director Giuliano Montaldo starred in as an actor, check out his Sacco and Vanzetti.

Tri - another WW2 film, this one of a much more complex variety. A film that pretty much spends it time asking questions about why people do things, what effect doing or not doing them has and how and why that doing/not doing then leads to the need for other questions to be answered. A great pairing with the above.

Winter Wind - the least critically successful of the major films of Miklos Jansco. I can see why some might have warmed to it - mainly because the flimsy narrative device doesn't work on the level it should despite the sophistication of the films construction. Essentially, a group of macedonian nationalists and Croatian fascists (who, for some confused reason, quote Proudhon in a number of scenes),are hiding out in a village on the verge of their successful assassination of Yugoslavia’s Serbian King Alexander in France in 1934 with the backing of the Hungarian military. The groups leader is paranoid about spies and that he's being set up by both sides. That's it. The film only has twelve shots. Really. None static. The film is constantly circling the characters who constantly circle each other and the camera. Each circle representing either the individuals paranoia and fears, the groups paranoia about wider issues --> psychological-->political--physical etc. This formalism gets boring very quickly i have to say. But a totally unique film so worth the watch if you get the chance.
 
Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

I'm enjoying this series. Lawrence is great as the lead, Harrelson has been fine.
 
Wadjda

The first film shot entirely in Saudi, and the first made by a Saudi woman. And you can tell, it's sometimes a bit too 'tell not show,' I guessed the outcome as soon as the basic antagonisms were set up, and its solidly without being spectacularly shot, but as a heartfelt and involving drama it was hard to beat. The insights into Saudi society was nothing that should come as a surprise to most people likely to see it, but the mundane details of such a vile society, and the ways people accept and reject it, are fascinating. Well worth a view.
 
Did I mention Snowpiercer? Great film. Bonkers. Full of holes and wrong stuff but great nonetheless.

Got The Pirate Fairy tonight :hmm: as well as 13 Sins.
 
Did I mention Snowpiercer? Great film. Bonkers. Full of holes and wrong stuff but great nonetheless.

Got The Pirate Fairy tonight :hmm: as well as 13 Sins.

it was good to have a northern woman as a baddy in such a film, it added to the surreal edge
 
The Veronica Mars film.

Enjoyable but best if you're first a fan of the tv show.
Rather disappointing IMO, not as good as a typical episode. Very much a TV movie.



Three Colours Blue/White/Red - I'd seen Red before but not the other two, a fantastic set of films, unfortunately they were spoilt slightly by the silly aspect ratio the TV company streamed then in meaning that the picture was smaller than I'd have liked. Even so their brilliance came through.

Night of the Sunflowers - Spanish drama re-telling a set of actions from a variety of different perspectives, decent but I didn't enjoy it as much as I though I should have.

Les Cousins - Chabrol's second film, very good, very Chabrol.
 
Grabbers. Alien octopus monsters invade an island full of Irish people. They discover that alcohol keeps the monsters at bay.

Sample dialogue[approx.]:

"They're like leeches - they drink blood."
"That one died when it bit Paddy."
"His blood alcohol was so high, it was toxic!"
 
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