Last Movie You Watched

[Todd]

This is the only good scene in the entire flick, as far as I can recall. It involves Natasha, of course.

The scene has its strong points, I will say.  Thanks for the warning.  As I recall, there was a cluster of Mars themed movies at the turn of the century, and the only one I watched was Mission to Mars, which was bad enough, and I figured if a talented director like De Palma couldn't make a good movie about the red planet, it was better not to try the others.

[SonicMan46]

Last few nights, a couple of DVD replacements of several animated films that I enjoy - the Blu-ray ratings were just superb for both of these productions w/ both receiving 5*/5* ratings for both video & audio at High-Def Digest -

 

[Octave]

A few art movies:
1. OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW (Sophie Fiennes, 2010)
2. GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING (Corinna Belz, 2011)
3. CARAVAGGIO (Derek Jarman, 1986)

Sophie Fiennes did two entertaining docs on (performances by) Slavoj Zizek.  This one is about a site-specific installation (?) by Anselm Kiefer, a reverse-engineered bunker archaeology, manmade ruins.  I liked it except for the distracting use of Ligeti over the palpative tracking shots of the chambers and passages and walls of the work.  (Some spicy Jörg Widmann was used briefly at the beginning, and for whatever reason was more effective.  No music was used for the long stretches of working/building, and this seemed to work much better.)

Thanks for sharing those thoughts on JEANNE DIELMAN, Philo.

I saw Seven Beauties when it first appeared in US theaters, and while I don't remember much about the film,  I do remember being mightily impressed by it.    But I was a much younger man back then.  In fact, so much younger that "boy" might be the better descriptor.

I think that "boy" was right about SEVEN BEAUTIES, Jeffrey....still is right.  There's a lot that's impressive about it.  Giancarlo Giannini's face is probably reason enough to see the movie: him alone.  His whole performance.  The "monumental" walls in the camp and the dusty, dreamy pale light...that also stays with me like a tremor.  The troubling, ambivalent presentation of "survival" and its costs was food for thought.
It's a remarkable film, except that there are some things about it that naggingly feel like "just following orders".  Rey's "ubermensch"-savagery prophecy, for example, comes off as recited from lecture notes, as autopilot.  It's designer despair, and doesn't take its own images and referents seriously.  Maybe if it was just torture porn, it wouldn't be a big deal.

PARIS, TEXAS is a beautiful film, Octave. The final meeting between Stanton and Kinski is one of kind cinema.

You are in better company than am I.....the Cannes jury apparently awarded that film the Palme d'Or unanimously.  I've run across at least two other citations of that closing Stanton/Kinski scene as a remarkable moment.  I don't want to overstate my distaste for that film or Wenders' 80s+ style; but one one viewing (only one, mind you!), I did not have the same encounter that you did.  My main point is that there might be some things in THIS MUST BE THE PLACE that would resonate for someone who liked PARIS, TEXAS.  I disliked both, but until I see PT again, it would be hard for me to be sure.  The photography of exteriors was very nice, and HDS' great face.  I'm going to watch it again someday, but after seeing several earlier Wenders films over the last year, I'm pretty sure I have a problem with his thing.  His brand of stiff cool explains too much about the very little zeitgeist I grew up in, after the trickle-down had had time to get around and mainstream itself.  Somebody at IMDB said that PT was Kurt Cobain's favorite movie; I've absolutely no idea if this is true, but my Geiger counter clicked a few times when read that.
As always, though, I would prefer to see the film you saw; I might, next time.

[TheGSMoeller]

@Octave - what are your thoughts on Wenders' Fallen Angel films, Wings of Desire and Faraway, So Close? I find Wings to be much more successful and highly worthy of repeat viewing, I also like the romantic qualities from it, definitely a film that's always fascinated me. Faraway is alright for one viewing and that's about all that is required. The End of Violence is flat, dull. His recent Pina was marvelous, perhaps more so because of the subject matter.

[Karl Henning]

PARIS, TEXAS is a beautiful film, Octave. The final meeting between Stanton and Kinski is one of kind cinema.

That's one I do need to revisit!

Thread Duty:

Among others yesterday: People Will Talk, with music by Brahms & Wagner.

[Todd]

Rewatched Deliverance for the first time in 20+ years, and for the first time in wide screen.  It has held up pretty well.  The BD transfer could have been better, I suppose.

[Todd]

I had to go to a niece's birthday party, but as luck would have it, the party locale was next door to a movie theater, so I saw World War Z immediately afterward.  Not bad, keeping in mind it's a zombie flick.  I hate fast Zekes. 

[snyprrr]

I had to go to a niece's birthday party, but as luck would have it, the party locale was next door to a movie theater, so I saw World War Z immediately afterward.  Not bad, keeping in mind it's a zombie flick.  I hate fast Zekes.

So, is Pitt in bed with BigPharma? Is this movie just a BigCommercial for getting shots? And pray tell what did 'Israel' save the day with a giant wall of zombi-partheid? Zombie flicks are only political parables. If Pitt is the UN, WHO do the zombies represent?

[Todd]

So, is Pitt in bed with BigPharma? Is this movie just a BigCommercial for getting shots? And pray tell what did 'Israel' save the day with a giant wall of zombi-partheid? Zombie flicks are only political parables. If Pitt is the UN, WHO do the zombies represent?

Hmmm.

[Karl Henning]

And, once again, snypsss grabbed Monday right by its gory horns....

[Cato]

A few art movies:
1. OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW (Sophie Fiennes, 2010)
This one is about a site-specific installation (?) by Anselm Kiefer, a reverse-engineered bunker archaeology, manmade ruins.  I liked it except for the distracting use of Ligeti over the palpable tracking shots of the chambers and passages and walls of the work.

The Toledo Museum of Art has a marvelous work by Anselm Kiefer called Athanor (Medieval Latin for "Alchemical Self-Feeding Furnace") which is a "portrait" of Hitler's bombed-out headquarters.  The artist used a blowtorch for some of the effects.



See also:

http://piedpantomime.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-praise-of-alchemy-anselm-kiefer-and.html

When I took European History students on tours through the museum, I "accompanied" specific paintings with music (e.g. the funeral procession from Beethoven's Symphony #3 for a propaganda picture called Napoleon at Eylau) and for Athanor I chose Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.

A good number of students and museum visitors found the effect unsettling and uncanny.

That's one (Paris, Texas) I do need to revisit!

Because the rule is: "Any movie with Harry Dean Stanton must be at least halfway decent!"   

This follows from an earlier rule that says: "Any movie with Warren Oates must be at least halfway decent!"  0:)

And that rule is proven even (or especially) by a movie called

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 



(Snyprr: are you reading this?     )

[Karl Henning]

The Thing (1982, dir. by John Carpenter) - One of my favorite horror thrillers, and another example of a remake outdoing the original. The first one wasn't bad, but Carpenter ups the ante in paranoia - and then there are the great (non-CGI) effects from Rob Bottin, and Ennio Morricone's score.

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--Bruce

First observation: if it were winter in Antarctica, there'd be no sunlight : )

[Octave]

<excised irritability flare>

BRING ME THE HEAD struck me as an incredible movie, though Warren Oates was a lot of that.  It's time for me to see that one again.  Apparently Oates was doing an impersonation, of sorts, of Peckinpah himself; it wasn't meant to be completely obvious, and this only became evident to the crew well into the shoot.

[Karl Henning]

First observation: if it were winter in Antarctica, there'd be no sunlight : )

Certainly not the alternation between bright day and deep night . . . .

[CaughtintheGaze]

This might be one of the worst flicks I've ever seen. Horrible dialogue, horrible acting, horrible directing, and the most boring chase scene, I imagine, ever put to screen. I wish I had never seen this.

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[kishnevi]

This might be one of the worst flicks I've ever seen. Horrible dialogue, horrible acting, horrible directing, and the most boring chase scene, I imagine, ever put to screen. I wish I had never seen this.

[asin]B008NNY91M[/asin]

I suppose a film which bases its whole promotional campaign on an extremely long car chase should not be expected to have much in the way of good dialogue and acting.

Come to think of it,  if the chase scene is 40 minutes long,  there's not much time left over for any dialogue and acting at all!

[Brian]

How long is the car chase in the original Italian Job?

[CaughtintheGaze]

Some truly stunning vistas, like Lean, but without his absolute talent and vision. Brilliant story, which really draws you in, and it seems lots of indigenous languages and actors were used adding to its supreme realism.

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[mc ukrneal]

How long is the car chase in the original Italian Job?

It goes on for some time - I'd say 15 minutes or so. If you include the moment the cars start moving, maybe 20 minutes or so. I really love the ending of this movie.

[CaughtintheGaze]

Run-of-the-mill Snipes, but it co-stars Lena, so...

[asin]B000PISZ7M[/asin]

It also stars Eliza, who seems to be starring in this fascinating movie that I'm a bit excited to see: