Last Watched

[rischka]

i will have to give godard another chance this was arthouse overload lol

uncomfortable number of crotch shots but it IS about a virgin

anyway oliveira my new favorite christmas film

[pabs]

I just watched this and it was brilliant! It's about history, linguistics, slavery and racism, a really interesting anthropology film featuring some great interviews.

I love all the people in it!

Do yourselves a favour and watch this when you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QFpVgPl9tQ

[rischka]

i watched 3 movies yesterday haven't done that in a long time!!

actually i fell asleep during shaolin temple but vikram ('86) was hilarious

update: shaolin temple also great

[Silga]

Yesterday I started watching the documentary Nothing Compares about Sinead O'Connor. Maybe I'll finish it tonight. Really sad to hear about all the abuse she has suffered.

[nrh]

i will have to give godard another chance this was arthouse overload lol

did you watch the anne marie mieville short meant to be screened with it? years since i've seen either but i remember liking her movie a lot & thinking his didn't quite work.

[nrh]

after years of failure i finally managed to catch covid. have to say it's not all that impressive but it did upend holiday travel plans.

glass onion - just awful. johnson is actually a pretty fun director - a lot of his staging ideas are a little corny, but he's sharp & inventive & the movie never feels flat. but the supporting cast is just dreadful (even a bbc christie adaptation would make sure these people aren't just dull caricatures), the big structural gambit is clever enough but more or less just wastes time, & casting edward norton as an elon musk type falls flat - if you are going to make a cartoonish movie surrounding a cartoonish man you should either cast an actor who can go over the top or play it for real pathos, & you end up with someone who can do neither.

janelle monae is great but she doesn't get enough cool outfits.

armageddon time - i have never wanted to beat up a child more than the child in this movie. jeremey strong as the father seems to be doing a muppet voice throughout. baffled that james gray would end up with a movie as bad as this? or as thoughtless & dull?

[rischka]

i will have to give godard another chance this was arthouse overload lol

did you watch the anne marie mieville short meant to be screened with it? years since i've seen either but i remember liking her movie a lot & thinking his didn't quite work.

no i did not but thank you i am on it!!

[sally]

orfeusz és eurydiké - istván gaál (1986)




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_5uBc8 ... h%C3%ADvum

[St. Gloede]

Been binging Akerman (with a detour of 3 Duras rewatches) the last few days and Almayer's Folly is a new favourite for me.

While Golden Eighties or Tomorrow We Move are probably the Akerman's for non-Akerman fans, this feels like the Akerman for the minimalist/arthouse viewers who never connected with her more sparse look, as ... just wow, this film is so visually lush:





Opening in stark neon lights, we follow the back of an ominous man into a rather kitsch sequence set in Malaysia featuring a lip-synch bar performance with backup dancers and an awkward/quirky murder reminiscent of Tsai-like surreal madness, we instantly know this won't be your standard Akerman film. It does leave surrealism somewhat behind after this sequence, as we circle back in time, but we are still thrown into a psychologically restless (and visually stunning) journey into displaced identities and madness.

Oh, did I mention this is a Joseph Conrad adaptation? (Not read his works myself, but can certainly see comparisons to Apocalypse Now! here)

Akerman's common motifs of alleys, streets and houses are replaced with shots of vast jungles and an oppressive hut where a slowly degrading white man, Almayer lives with the Malaysian wife he married just for the rights to her family's gold mines (nothing can be found) and the daughter he says is his world.

Both husband and wife drift into variations of madness, with Almayer becoming a desperate, distraught and pitiable figure, clinging to dreams of Europe and turning his daughter white. The shots of him in his hair or walking as if almost collapsing around his terrain we see a rather tragic existence, even with servants around. He is isolated, alone, ill and in a rather futile state. My mind also wanders to certain Herzog protagonists here, though Almayer's has even less energy or motivations, his dreams almost eaten up by the time we meet him as a young-ish man, and decaying throughout the runtime.

In contrast, we have our second protagonist, the other Almayer, his daughter Nina, sent to a boarding school only to return as an adult. A stoic, broken, yet still powerful figure - especially in contrast to her father's lack of power - and the clashes and contrast between them are simply striking and evocative.

This is a film that will likely speak to fans of films from around the same time by other minimalists, such as Jauja by Alonso and Zama by Martel, and as such it is clearly a less unique" work by Akerman's standards (who's films are sometimes without proper comparison points). It is interesting to see Akerman "simply" adapt a work, and create something visually stunning and emotionally haunting, and just flex her style and flourish muscles a little, and it is a really exciting film in contrast with her previous works.

Note: This was Akerman's very last feature film - and her first since the charming, quicky and frankly very accessible comedy Tomorrow We Move from 2002. I'm still to see her last film, No Home Movie, which is also one of her most acclaimed, really looking forward to it.

[Pretentious Hipster]

The Exigency - The outsider art version of a blockbuster. It's better than most blockbusters thanks to its action sequences, and its subversion of tropes. It looks cheap, but the self-aware, absurdist humour was perfect. You can see the trailer here, but most of the humour is not there... it was a huge surprise by just how funny this was, reaching parody levels.

This was made by one dude working on his home computer for 13 years. It's nice to see someone's passion project completed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wR-gcV_rSU

[jal90]

Watched four since my random venture into Hungarian silent zone.

Simone, le voyage du siècle which I watched with parents and aunt and was... serviceable, just a very by-the-numbers biopic of a quite interesting figure in European politics from the last Century. I think it's a fine crowdpleaser all in all and it was very cool to know about Simone Veil and her history of activism intertwined with her traumatic past in a concentration camp. The director tries some flashy camera movements which are quite annoying though, and I'm not so sure about his optimism and idealism on the EU as an institution. I got a bit too angry/cynical lately to view things as positive as he does, but hey at least he picked an inspiring example to follow I guess.

For the same reason, Mungiu's R.M.N. was a lot more of my current vibe. It was my first experience with Mungiu, though I expected something slow and a heavy atmosphere... I think I was surprised to find it very dynamic. The story has plenty of punches and suggestive moments and its observations on both the aggressive xenophobia of Romanian and Hungarian societies AND the structural racism and classism of Western European countries are very on point. From what I've read on LB, a number of people seem to have missed the point in my opinion, because they identify the character of Csilla as "the good one". I don't think Mungiu writes good sides here and it's this bleakness that I think makes a very appropriate reading of the current situation in Europe and the socioeconomical vulnerabilities and inequalities that pave the ground for fascist rhetorics to penetrate.

And about the rise of fascism is precisely Konrad Wolf's Lissy, a haunting and fascinating story about the rise of nazism in Germany through the point of view of the titular character Lissy, the wife of a first unemployed, then SA soldier and later official. It is scary to see the husband's sudden acceptance of hate speech and action and it is scarier because it feels very real. Again reading reviews they say that it is too fast and too simple, and I'd say that's the point and it's proved by how these discourses tend to grow in the population. History repeats itself all the time and sometimes the reason is not a strong and deep character development but an aggressive piece of propaganda thrown at the most appropriate moment to trigger a major change in personality and values. Add in a strong sense of identity and a fair number of inflammatory speeches and there you go, a nazi. This is what this film conveys so brilliantly.

Finally a classic I've postponed for very long... Kurosawa's Ikiru. Liked it a lot, particularly everything surrounding and about Takashi Shimura's performance. Such a grey and belittled man trying to find his worth, he is so convincing that his character ends up even a bit exasperating and I feel bad for feeling like that. The idea of exploring how one's life and values change after knowing about a terminal illness is always one I find fascinating to explore and this is another great example. However, the last act to me is a bit of a mistake. I think Kurosawa wants to talk about the example set by the main character and honestly I couldn't care less about that. I don't watch Ikiru to learn about Kanji's legacy, but about his psychological and emotional path. This part struck me as a -way too long- attempt to place a moral and an example to the story and by doing so it screws the personal connection with the character.

[Pretentious Hipster]

Finally a classic I've postponed for very long... Kurosawa's Ikiru. Liked it a lot, particularly everything surrounding and about Takashi Shimura's performance. Such a grey and belittled man trying to find his worth, he is so convincing that his character ends up even a bit exasperating and I feel bad for feeling like that. The idea of exploring how one's life and values change after knowing about a terminal illness is always one I find fascinating to explore and this is another great example. However, the last act to me is a bit of a mistake. I think Kurosawa wants to talk about the example set by the main character and honestly I couldn't care less about that. I don't watch Ikiru to learn about Kanji's legacy, but about his psychological and emotional path. This part struck me as a -way too long- attempt to place a moral and an example to the story and by doing so it screws the personal connection with the character.

May I recommend Ivans xtc? It's based off of the same book that Ikiru was adapted from, and I find that it did the psychological aspect a lot better. I won't go into detail but it's especially because he goes down a more realistic path than the "woe is me" kind... kind of like he's putting on a mask. Not sure how you'll feel about the first act though. He works as a hollywood agent and before he finds out about his illness it shows him at this job and how shitty hollywood is.

[jal90]

Finally a classic I've postponed for very long... Kurosawa's Ikiru. Liked it a lot, particularly everything surrounding and about Takashi Shimura's performance. Such a grey and belittled man trying to find his worth, he is so convincing that his character ends up even a bit exasperating and I feel bad for feeling like that. The idea of exploring how one's life and values change after knowing about a terminal illness is always one I find fascinating to explore and this is another great example. However, the last act to me is a bit of a mistake. I think Kurosawa wants to talk about the example set by the main character and honestly I couldn't care less about that. I don't watch Ikiru to learn about Kanji's legacy, but about his psychological and emotional path. This part struck me as a -way too long- attempt to place a moral and an example to the story and by doing so it screws the personal connection with the character.

May I recommend Ivans xtc? It's based off of the same book that Ikiru was adapted from, and I find that it did the psychological aspect a lot better. I won't go into detail but it's especially because he goes down a more realistic path than the "woe is me" kind... kind of like he's putting on a mask. Not sure how you'll feel about the first act though. He works as a hollywood agent and before he finds out about his illness it shows him at this job and how shitty hollywood is.

I'll gladly take that recommendation! Heard about that film but I didn't know it was the same story. If it did the psychological aspect better then it is totally my thing.

I have in my plans to watch soon another version of the story though, the one directed by Oliver Hermanus this year, so it will be interesting to check that one too and compare all the versions. Thanks for the suggestion

[DT.]

armageddon time - i have never wanted to beat up a child more than the child in this movie. jeremey strong as the father seems to be doing a muppet voice throughout. baffled that james gray would end up with a movie as bad as this? or as thoughtless & dull?

Agreed, this was a weird one. Though even with the low-key Lifetime movie feel and the clumsy racial themes, it still felt incredibly lived-in, and sincere in that respect.

The Fabelmans - speaking of, another example of the meme where men will literally do anything (i.e. make multi-million dollar productions) instead of going to therapy. I find this one more self-indulgent than most autobiographies, but I'll admit to being swept up on a basic level, not least due to the committed cast (Michelle Williams being MVP - along with that cameo at the end, of course).

Bardo - ...and even more autofiction. Showy and mildly irritating - I'll never complain about The Great Beauty again.

RRR - sad to say this one didn't really do it for me? Maybe because it's been a while since I last saw a production along these lines (it might have actually been Baahubali a few years ago, which I enjoyed) - or maybe because Eega can simply never be topped (which may be your fault for showing it here all those years ago, nrh ).

[rischka]

watched davies' benediction - grim and beautiful w some superb actors. probably my favorite i've seen from past few years

and siegfried was right - wilfred owen was the better poet

[Silga]

I loved Benediction. Saw it last spring at a local festival and it is one of the best films I saw in cinema this year. A captivating film that made me happy and hopeful that this type of dramas are still here. A beautiful, classic filmmaking by the great Terence Davies.

[...]

Here's my list via Twitter and Letterboxd. Obviously, or I hope should be obvious, my viewing was highly circumscribed by where I was watching, hotel cable for a few months and then Netflix for a couple more, so more about exploring recent trends in commercial and semi-commercial niche films than searching missed works from film history. As such it was pretty rewarding for getting me to look at things I'd otherwise have ignored or missed and, in the end, really was a good year for developing thoughts on what movies are doing now(ish). Not a lot I'd offer as suggestions to others since what I found interesting likely ain't gonna translate well, but, still, there's a chance I guess that posting the list will spark some faint idea of what can be gleaned from the bulk rather than the winnowed. Or if not that then at least make someone wonder what the hell was he thinking liking that?

Moderately ordered, by page and design.

http://twitter.com/gruxamengus/status/1 ... 4032465927

[nrh]

last year wasn't an absolute wash in terms of movies for me - i saw plenty of work i absolutely loved - but it's probably the first year of my adult life where i read more books than watched movies (if you included comics in that equation it is even worse), and one where for a variety of depressing reasons i didn't watch a single movie until midway through march.

so i'm feeling optimistic that i've started this year off so well, with a triple feature of recent hong sang-soo movies at museum of the moving image as part of their year end retrospective series.

one of the great things about seeing a bunch of hong in a short period of time is being reminded of just how ridiculous the commonplace accusation that he makes the same movie over and over again is (the other commonplace, that he only makes films about drunk men, hasn't been true for over a decade).

introduction is hong at his most wintry and elliptical, 66 minutes of stark digital black and white (by this point hong has whittled his crew down to about five and is acting as his own dp and editor), each of the three sections separated by months or even years. in front of your face is hong at his most seemingly straightforward, a middle aged actress turned seattle liquor shop owner returning to korea to reconnect with her sister and meet a (comparatively) young director who had fallen in love with her performances back when he was a college freshman; this is in sometimes garish color and unfolds over about 24 hours. the novelist's film goes back to stark black and white, but keeps the 24 hour time frame (there is a coda at the end that skips a few months ahead) and the same lead actress as face, here she is a prolific novelist who has lost faith with her ability to write and after a series of unexpected encounters ends up determined to direct a short film starring a retired young actress played by kim min-hee.

it makes sense that novelist's film is the one that is most popular - it is the most full of incident, a typical movie length (90 some minutes), and lee hye-young as the novelist is maybe the most perfectly realized character in a hong movie yet. but i loved all three.

and should say i finished the year with avatar: the way of water (i hated the first one but had a good time with this - if nothing else it is a monumental achievement in technology and single minded obsession) and the largely forgotten sandra bullock/ben affleck romantic comedy whatsit forces of nature (a movie with many virtues but more than anything a reminder that as late as 1999 this kind of movie could have real image for image beauty).

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

I always thought that Lencho's avatar at the Tapatalk rendition of the forum was Maurice Chevalier in a Lubitsch. Well, I watched One Way Passage yesterday evening and finally saw the image spring to life. Never thought I would mistake Frank McHugh for Maurice Chevalier

[Lencho of the Apes]

Frank McHugh> One Way Passage > Monkey Business > Maurice Chevalier. There's a joke there somewhere.

Was he wearing a straw hat maybe? I don't even remember...

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Yeah, a straw hat and a wave at the camera. Very presentational style.

[Roscoe]

I was very taken with BENEDICTION, despite the less than ideal viewing conditions at the festering shithole known as the Angelika Film Center. Jack Lowden is definitely an actor to watch -- he's been very good in the SLOW HORSES series, too.

As much as I could endure of that idiotic GLASS ONION thing. I swear I knew who did it before the corpse stopped twitching. All the fancy plot gimmicks they kept tossing so frantically all over the screen couldn't disguise the sub-MURDER SHE WROTE lameness of the plot. I felt like Dave Bautista's mother screaming at him from the other room "it's a Fibonacci Sequence!"

And the unspeakable TOP GUN: MAVERICK, which has to set some kind of standard for pure Celebrity Auto-Analingus. The self-congratulation and macho posturing get unbearable, but without the genial beefcake displays of the first film. It's like somebody took Tom Cruise aside and explained the meaning of "homo-erotic" to him and he replied "Not In MY Vanity Project!"

[nrh]

I was very taken with BENEDICTION, despite the less than ideal viewing conditions at the festering shithole known as the Angelika Film Center.

weirdly the last time i was at angelika was for davies deep blue sea, i went to see it twice there despite the awful picture & audience.

benediction played this friday at momi but sadly could not make it due to work. probably my last chance to see it on a decent screen for years.

[St. Gloede]

Two good candidates for best film of 2022:

Pacifiction (2022, Albert Serra)



A neon-clad, moody anti-thriller, trading more on suspicion and uncertainty, than a steadfast plot, Pacifiction arises as one of the clearest masterpieces of the modern era, with a length fitting the decaying sense of grandeur it depicts. 

Benoît Magimel strikes up an enigmatic and simultaneously off-putting and intriguing figure as the high commissioner, the friend of all, high and low, spending his time quieting natives, striking deals, and looking after the uncertain interests of France, all while starting to suspect he might become sidelined, be it by his own government, the navy or foreign forces.

It is a bloated, outmoded way of life, and while his suits may not be pale white (they are still typically pale), he is very much the embodiment of colonialism in an environment of today, though really, the era could just as easily (with a few changes in technology and music) have been the 20s, 40s, 60s, etc. A timeless fable, perhaps of madness, or rather megalomania, but this is a megalomania shared by more than him.

The dirty, libertine world conjured up by Serra's atmospheric shots and pace, coupled with characters with uncertain loyalties, motives and goals, and a mystery that may lead to everyone's doom, fuels n enigmatic, questioning suspense that last throughout its runtime. That said, those wishing for more straightforward plotting may indeed be disappointed, if not bored and I can certainly see it being a rather divisive film when we start doing the roundups of the year that was.


Unrueh / Unrest (2022, Cyril Schäublin)



Anarchism is visual serenity? 

"Anarchism is order", symbolised by the famous AO, has long been one of the slogans and basic premises/goals of anarchism. In what could be been a biography of one of the key anarchist theorists, Pyotr Kropotkin, this premise is taken into the form and narrative of the film itself. Composed with utter serenity and precision, and depicting, if not serenity (rather faux serenity) then certainly precision, Unrest is a dare to explore history through ideas, concepts, labour and indeed precision itself as opposed to being driven by its characters or a story. While Kropotkin, or perhaps the potential love interest in the form of Anarchist watchmaker Josephine, could take shapes of protagonists, the film spends large portions of its time away from them, painting this peculiar historical portrait with few if any equals, and it is all done through the magic of cinematic form, but before we breakdown the form, let's look at the story.

We are informed in a short text that it was while visiting a small Swiss village mainly comprising of clockmakers and farmers that Pyotr Kropotkin became convinced of anarchism, and it is this visit and the town we will spend our time within and be captivated by. The title, "Unrest", fittingly refers to just this balance device that keeps clocks ticking, with the film itself dedicating a decent portion of its runtime to the process of the unrest's creation, often with stopwatches nearby to see just how many seconds said the process takes and if they match the factory's goals of increased production. This town is special in its high composition of anarchist activity, and yet, even with the political theory clearly spread, everything, up to and including the owner of the factory and core power broker appears to be "harmonious", there is simply no "unrest", and this is where we can return to the contradictions in play, and indeed the compositions.

What is unique with the framing is how it treats people in relation to their surroundings, often placing those we may view as our key characters in the corners of the frames, presenting a visual equality and more interestingly, promoting the time, place and community/collective as more central to its storytelling. In close-ups, characters speak almost as if speaking directly to the viewers in the clearest, pure and simple fashion, while the broader compositions feel more lyrical, almost like serene paintings.

You may by this think that Unrest is a poetical, philosophical or perhaps theoretical exercise, and it may indeed be all three, but beyond beauty and serenity, Schäublin manages to introduce a great degree of humour, through contrast. Everyone is polite, and no one wants to break the serenity, even the policemen smile and wish people a good day, and get it back in return as they keep voters away from the ballot boxes. Everything is formal and everyone is obsessed with time, indeed it is a town with 4 times, each equally valid and involved in an almost ideological battle of precision - and this precision runs through every image we see and every confrontation and encounter. The power of the factory owner is supreme and merciless, but it is done with a polite smile, with everyone expected to act accordingly in any and all events. It is a rather exceptional construction for this alone.

The opening, with Kropotkin's extended family/friends in Russia discussing him and his newfound beliefs is absolutely fascinating, in part because they provide so much exposition, even direct ideological exposition to what anarchism is (federalism as opposed to nationalism/statism) is rather exceptional in how it "gets away" with such exposition, along with showcasing parts of Kropotkin's romantic nature, while still feeling fitting within the very carefully composed style - and even ties in with the photograph obsession/trading we see as a recurring motif in the Swiss village.

I would be tempted to say that Schäublin's purpose in this harmony, and serenity is to still showcase a degree of clarity for the audience to grasp and put into context. While harmonious we still see power and power imbalance based on ownership, the plight of the workers, the ideas of ararchism presented clearly and what it confronts presented clearer still. Intriguingly, at the very end we are treated to something far more dreamlike, or should we say poetically than what we have seen before, opening up new possibilities, yet still feeling so fitting with what we have seen pass before.

A marvellous and possibly unique work, though I see that Schäublin's first feature, Those Who Are Fine (2017) has a similar visual style - moving it far up my watchlist and making me think this is a young director we can expect much from in the future.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Glad you liked Unrest one of my favorites at TIFF last year, but everyone in my theater seemed to hate it.

[St. Gloede]

Glad you liked Unrest one of my favorites at TIFF last year, but everyone in my theater seemed to hate it.

Jealous you got to see it on the big screen and surprised to hear about the amount of hate. I'd expect reactions to be a bit mixed given the unusual style of course, but that's disappointing to hear. Pretty decent response on Letterboxd at least.

[Roscoe]

MURDER AT THE VANITIES -- Mitchell Leisen's pre-Code musical mystery thingamabob, with Jack Oakie and Victor McLaglen investigating tangled webs backstage at the opening night of Earl Carroll's Vanities, a musical revue along the lines of the Ziegfeld Follies. Interesting in being one of the very few movies to show musical numbers that might actually take place on an actual Broadway-type stage, painted backdrops and all, and interesting in showing Busby Berkeley's influence without successfully imitating his brilliance. It's kind of a mess, but an enjoyable mess. Carl Brisson's Dutch accent is only slightly stranger than McLaglan's wandering now-he's-British-now-he's-not NYC Cop. Lots has been made of the "Sweet Marijuana" number, but that "Rape Of The Rhapsody" number only gets ickier and more racist the more I think about it.

And THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, Sargent's great NYC thriller, one of the very few that gets NYC geography right. Tight as fuck, mean and funny and clean, there's not a frame out of place. Perfection.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

I really liked Murder at the Vanities. One of my 2021 fav discoveries. It was a very late pre-Code. And, on my reading, the murder at the vanities is an allegory for the coming of the Code killing sexy Berkeley-esque movies—which allegories I always appreciate.

[rischka]

i've watched some movies! gideon of scotland yard is pure copaganda. no one solves 5 crimes in one day. and i thought john ford was pro-IRA

aftersun - nice vibes and good acting. i like the collage style but i've seen it a lot at this point! bit sentimental

whale movie 'big miracle' - dumb but i still cried, 'every secret thing' - pretty good lifetime murder mystery thingie

[Ofréne]

Watched CANYON PASSAGE near the beginning of the year
Dont know why it took me so long but its a new favourite