cup2020 | round 1 | Williams v Gilić

[Curtis, baby]

Could See a Puma (Eduardo Williams,, 2011) vs. Ljubav (Vlatko Gilić, 1972)

Vote for either xWilliams or xGilic

Round ends: March 1, 2020

[flip]

Lubjav (Vlatko Gilić, 1972)

in case anyone is searching for this, i think the spelling is "Ljubav"

watched it, still need to see the williams

[josiahmorgan11]

Ljubav -- what a wonderful first half, with that glorious sexual imagery of communion, too! I felt the second half got a little bogged down, away from the conceptual enterprise toward the material and easily described.

Could see a Puma -- Begins and operates in many quasi-realist modes (think Atlantics) that I'm otherwise uninterested in, but very quickly and very effectively proves itself almost immediately and unfolds into something quite chilly and far away and difficult to touch and combining petrol fumes and air.

xWilliams

[flip]

i'm casting only a tentative vote for now, because i might revisit the williams film. there's some real poetry in the sound-image conjunction during the picnic scene in the gilic, and the pacing and poetics of the film brought to mind still life-era saless (though i haven't seen that film in years, so i might be misremembering it). it's more compelling than i would have expected, though it still feels a bit long for what it's trying to do. still liked it.

the williams is more challenging, and as i was watching my reactions veered from "this is incompetent" to "this is amazing". once i figured out something about what the film was trying to do, i no longer thought it incompetent at all, but i'm still not persuaded much of the dialogue is worth attending to (though some of it is clearly essential). i like how it delineates form through shifting landscape, it has its signature moments, and it's lingering in my memory more than most films i've seen recently. since it's so different from most films, i think i might need to see it again to fully appreciate it.

so this is my vote for now, but it might change later:

xGilic

[rischka]

xwilliams

thx everyone for the interesting shorts!~

[mesnalty]

It's been a while since I saw Could See a Puma, so I can't say much about it now, but I found it remarkable at the time (and still prefer it to The Human Surge). Ljubav is a remarkably patient short; lingering so long on those early medium shots of the construction site makes the cut that shows its true scale much more effective. Still, I agree that it's a little long for what it's trying to accomplish.

xWilliams

[john ryan]

Closest contest of the round for me. Both impressive.

xGilic

Any idea what kind of construction site that is in Ljubav? It was a frighteningly large structure.

[greennui]

xGilic

[arkheia]

xWilliams

Took a few days to give both films an initial look and then rewatched them a few more times today.

After a couple viewings of Lubjav, I began to appreciate the way that Gilić builds to the film's moment of intimacy - starting with the enormous scale of the bridge, framed in contrast to the relatively small workers, before narrowing in on a simple picnic lunch between one of them with their partner. It feels crucial that the film allots equal attention in its arrangement of the lunch (setting the table cloth, spreading out the plates of food, enjoying each other's company etc.) as is given to depicting the construction of the large infrastructure.

I feel less certain I understand Pude ver un Puma after several viewings but that almost makes it more curious and appealing to me. Starting from the rooftops and ending with what seems to be a descent into the earth, the film carries a gravitational pull that continually finds its characters falling toward the ground as they wander throughout the fragmentary landscape.

"- You evade reality, no matter where you are"
- Yes"

[ofrene]

xWilliams

[sally]

xGilić

[Curtis, baby]

Williams wins 5-4