Last Watched
Re: Last Watched
oh then i watched a bunch of jordan belson shorts and they were very beautiful xD
I could not find this online but I did look at some youtube synopsis that literally cut snippets from the film and it certainly appears to push that same vibe as 'Cure' However, one review of this on imdb described as the worst thing the viewer has ever seen because of how it just ends without any sort of resolution. It seemed like a rather extreme take on a Kurosawa project which was why I sought this out anyways. Did you find anything off putting by how it ended?
edit- Also, how did you end up catching Kitano's 'Kubi' !?! I didn't even know he'd done anything else recently.
e2 -Where did you find Stud/Shame (1967) with subs?
Last edited by cinesmith on Sun Jun 23, 2024 7:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Introspection Tower (1941) Hiroshi Shimizu
I really enjoyed this one so I'm looking forward to seeing the other kid oriented ones.
I had a chance to see a 35MM print of 'Japanese Girls at the Harbor' yesterday but I missed it,
i love the kid oriented shimizus xD he actually adopted a bunch of orphans after the war
i will address your other questions in the secret location
i will address your other questions in the secret location
cleópatra (bressane 2007)
cleverly staged, wonderful colors, mainly rapturous (w a few baffling choices toward the end but who am i to judge) cw for kinky sex!!! do NOT watch this with yr grandma unless she's very broadminded!!! found in greennui's favorites list
cleverly staged, wonderful colors, mainly rapturous (w a few baffling choices toward the end but who am i to judge) cw for kinky sex!!! do NOT watch this with yr grandma unless she's very broadminded!!! found in greennui's favorites list
have had some shimizus playing out here as well. just got back from Sound in the Mist. wonderful. lovely. heart-rending. etc. maybe my fav shimizu? but i'll sleep on that take, sometimes these intense cineloves wear off the next day. but it bammed me right in my soul. pow!
sometimes i think all movies should take place on mountains. but you can also make a good movie at a beach or a train station, and i guess i wouldn't want to lose all that
sometimes i think all movies should take place on mountains. but you can also make a good movie at a beach or a train station, and i guess i wouldn't want to lose all that
i try to keep up with our old friend kanafani and his subtitling projects so i watched بين السماء والأرض/between heaven and earth (d. salah abu seif 1959)
and it's about a bunch of people stuck in an elevator, each with their own little drama. things deteriorate quickly!
the script is funny w some talented comic actors. i liked the meta aspect a lot
very fun i recommend it
thx kanafani!
and it's about a bunch of people stuck in an elevator, each with their own little drama. things deteriorate quickly!
the script is funny w some talented comic actors. i liked the meta aspect a lot
very fun i recommend it
thx kanafani!
Banba no Chûtarô "Chutaro of Banba"
Nobuo Nakagawa, Japan 1956
First Nakagawa I've watched in nearly 20 years, and I had almost forgotten how great he was! Easily the best film I've seen this month.
Total masterpiece. As one reviewer put it so succinctly on letterboxd: "one of the few transcendental filmmakers cast in the same mold as Dreyer or Bresson".
The quality of the print I watched was pretty bad, but this time I simply couldn't resist.
Nobuo Nakagawa, Japan 1956
- Unbenannt.png (243.85 KiB) Viewed 2662 times
First Nakagawa I've watched in nearly 20 years, and I had almost forgotten how great he was! Easily the best film I've seen this month.
Total masterpiece. As one reviewer put it so succinctly on letterboxd: "one of the few transcendental filmmakers cast in the same mold as Dreyer or Bresson".
The quality of the print I watched was pretty bad, but this time I simply couldn't resist.
"I too am a child burned by future experiences, fallen back on myself and already suspecting the certainty that in the end only those will prove benevolent who believe in nothing." – Marran Gosov
hello this place. i watched the bikeriders (nichols 2023) predictable but i like watching these actors work. austin butler and tom hardy are in loooooooove
good soundtrack and period atmosphere. and i could swear an early scene evoked my own private idaho
i'm into dumb cinema at the moment it's too fucking hot here. had to look up her name but jodie comer was excellent too. why are the english so good at accents
good soundtrack and period atmosphere. and i could swear an early scene evoked my own private idaho
i'm into dumb cinema at the moment it's too fucking hot here. had to look up her name but jodie comer was excellent too. why are the english so good at accents
Finally caught up on seeing Paul Schraeder's 'Master Gardener' (2023) which I felt was not nearly as good as I had hoped it was going to be.
It's weird to see how easily critics were raving about this one when there's barely any kind of resolution except the boss is somehow giving in to his demands. (as if that were ever going to be the case) Still, Joel Edgerton does a spot-on impression of Montgomery Clift which is kind of stunning to hear in the midst of this.
It was far too hot out to not just go to a cool theater and watch 'Longlegs' directed by the son of Anthony Perkins which I suspect most people are not aware of. (Even more screwy than having a father die of AIDS is his mother was killed on 9-11. (a lifetime of therapy there) He previously directed 'The Blackcoat's Daughter' (2015), 'I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House' (2016) and a version of 'Hansel and Gretel' (2020)
I'd heard mixed things about reactions to this one and I have to say there's a degree of which it would have been even better had we never actually met 'Longlegs'. His ghostlike persona alone and the degree of which he's only partially shown on screen commits a far, far more sinister image than the reveal of his creepy demeanor. The ending does leave the audience in a lurch as to how this was supposed to resolve itself but I was more troubled by how the main character was some how not going to be aware of what was going on around her growing up. It's those details that made the illusion less than effective in my mind.
For a glimpse of Osgood on camera, his last appearance was as the commercial director in 'Nope.' You'll see him at about 52 seconds turn his head and make a half-hearted laugh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhGmmgorzLA
ha i do want to see it. but first i'm watching 7 hours of sylberberg's our hitler
btw agent orange just chose as his running mate the guy who called him 'america's hitler' i guess he liked that
also stop calling him an authoritarian fascist because it incites violence!! sry i've been trying hard to keep my radical opinions outta here
btw agent orange just chose as his running mate the guy who called him 'america's hitler'
i guess he liked thatalso stop calling him an authoritarian fascist because it incites violence!! sry i've been trying hard to keep my radical opinions outta here
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Monsieur Arkadin
- Posts: 421
- Joined: Mon May 27, 2019 5:56 pm
I did the same last night. I was left overall underwhelmed. I like Cage, probably more than most. I just think his performance doesn't meld well with the movie that was made here. So I kind of agree that the version without him would be overall stronger.
I also think I would have just preferred the movie be something else entirely. So maybe I'm just outright the wrong audience for it. I liked I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House which did a pretty good job at feeling uncanny. Someone said that this was basically a feature length X-Files episode, and I kind of agree. But I would have liked it more with Mulder and Scully.
demme's manchurian candidate from 2004. i'm with you denzel
guys i'm afraid i'll start screaming at people irl soon and that might get me shot
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Lencho of the Apes
- Posts: 1896
- Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2018 4:38 am
It's not that bad. If one of them wins, we'll be needing a complete reset of the governmental apparatus... and if the other one wins, we'll probably need that complete reset more urgently.
The opposite of 'reify' is... ?
ok i had a good cry and i'm feeling a bit better. peter thiel choosing the vp put me over the edge
gonna stop reading the news!!!! for real this time
glad to hear it's really not a big deal since it's seeming kind of inevitable. i can't help feeling like this is how we got hitler
but i'm an idiot obviously!! i'm sure men know what they're doing!! HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAGHHHH
i wish sally would come back
gonna stop reading the news!!!! for real this time
glad to hear it's really not a big deal since it's seeming kind of inevitable. i can't help feeling like this is how we got hitler
but i'm an idiot obviously!! i'm sure men know what they're doing!! HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAGHHHH
i wish sally would come back
i'm feeling much better!!
La petite de Montparnasse (schwarz/vaucorbeil) a charming riff on clair/lubistch style musical films
a disinherited aristocrat struggles to make ends meet with the workingclass girl he loves
La petite de Montparnasse (schwarz/vaucorbeil) a charming riff on clair/lubistch style musical films
a disinherited aristocrat struggles to make ends meet with the workingclass girl he loves
Do you by chance have a rip or such of this film available?
I'd love to watch it (as I adore Schwarz), and it sounds fantastic!
EDIT: just noticed on letterboxd Jerry has watched this. I miss him.
"I too am a child burned by future experiences, fallen back on myself and already suspecting the certainty that in the end only those will prove benevolent who believe in nothing." – Marran Gosov
i do have a good rip!! will upload asap
sound is missing in a couple of scenes but i don't think i missed anything important?
very fun movie. ok it's in the place
sound is missing in a couple of scenes but i don't think i missed anything important?
very fun movie. ok it's in the place
Thanks a lot!! 
"I too am a child burned by future experiences, fallen back on myself and already suspecting the certainty that in the end only those will prove benevolent who believe in nothing." – Marran Gosov
after spending years and years on my watchlist i've finally gotten to modesty blaise (losey 1966)
much delightful weirdness with terence stamp and dirk bogarde and ofc monica vitti in dozens of smashing outfits. not sure i followed the plot, also not sure it matters
much delightful weirdness with terence stamp and dirk bogarde and ofc monica vitti in dozens of smashing outfits. not sure i followed the plot, also not sure it matters
Never Sleep Again 1992 Nie wieder schlafen - Nie mehr zurück Directed by Pia Frankenberg
<3<3<3
Very rischka-core
<3<3<3
Very rischka-core
The Forty-First
Il Ferroviere
Afire (Petzold, 2023)
About a narcissistic and pretentious young writer who's his own worst enemy and whose hangups won't allow him to just chill out and let go a little so he can participate in and enjoy other people's company.
He puts up a wall between himself and others. A self-imposed isolation. He survives emotionally by conning himself that he's superior to others, but it's just a mask. Hanging over the film is the looming, ever-present threat of climate change, a foreboding presence felt right throughout the film without ever becoming the main focus. (Because that's how climate change is treated in Western countries: it's quickly pushed out of any news or any conversations - if it's ever even mentioned in the first place.) A great ensemble cast, with Paula Beer outstanding, as usual, as the lovely, relaxed and confident Nadja, the main foil to the fussy, self-loathing Leon. I loved it. 9/10
About a narcissistic and pretentious young writer who's his own worst enemy and whose hangups won't allow him to just chill out and let go a little so he can participate in and enjoy other people's company.
He puts up a wall between himself and others. A self-imposed isolation. He survives emotionally by conning himself that he's superior to others, but it's just a mask. Hanging over the film is the looming, ever-present threat of climate change, a foreboding presence felt right throughout the film without ever becoming the main focus. (Because that's how climate change is treated in Western countries: it's quickly pushed out of any news or any conversations - if it's ever even mentioned in the first place.) A great ensemble cast, with Paula Beer outstanding, as usual, as the lovely, relaxed and confident Nadja, the main foil to the fussy, self-loathing Leon. I loved it. 9/10
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Monsieur Arkadin
- Posts: 421
- Joined: Mon May 27, 2019 5:56 pm
I watched, about 5 times, an atrocious print of Violetta in an attempt to create subs for the film.
Usmar Ismail is regularly cited as the Godfather of Indonesian Cinema. But what is less frequently mentioned is the fact that this was an overt political decision. I like Ismail and his film work, as well as what he (tried to) accomplish(ed) in the early days of Indonesian National Cinema... but there was someone else with similar aspirations at the time: Bachtiar Siagian.
Ismail was the more conservative of the two, which is why he was essentially crowned as Indonesia's own Griffith or Hitchcock by Suharto's New Order government. Whereas Bachtiar was imprisoned and all his films were all destroyed. Bachtiar's films were much more overtly interested in issues of class and gender roles than Ismail's, which seemed to take upper middle class life as the default (or only) type of life worth dramatizing.
However, Violetta survived... somehow. I have yet to learn why it survived. And there's a copy on KG. It's pretty awful. Sound and image are both in rough shape (but image is much much worse). You can tell there's some beautiful imagery here, but it's bordering on impossible to figure out who is even in some scenes, let alone what they are doing.
To top it off, I'm not currently 100% certain that the scenes are in the correct order in the files available on KG. There's a scene in which a man brings a woman a bird as a gift for "defeating him" which I didn't understand whether or not this was some sort of idiom. About 15 minutes later she beats him in a game of chess. Should the bird have come later on? The only print of the film is currently sitting in Jakarta, and I hope to screen it later this year, so hopefully I'll have some answers eventually.
The film itself is relatively slight, most of its importance comes from being the sole insight into Bachtiar's filmography currently viewable* to those interested in it. But it's worthwhile. Someone on letterboxed compared it to Sirk, and I see that. It's a simple bourgeois family melodrama, but unlike in most of Ismail's films the servants are given a lot of screen time. The male love interest is kind of creepy. We're not sure whether Violetta's mother is completely wrong to disapprove of him or not. Gender and Class and Religion all form a whirlwind to make life impossible to navigate.
Wide shots at night are miserable.
Day sequences give a significantly better idea of the somewhat neorealist, somewhat impressionistic aesthetics of the film.
This is a close-up of a man's face. It's a rather important reaction shot. If he hadn't verbalized what he was feeling a moment later I'd have been lost.
*Just got word this week that a second Bachtiar film, Turang, has been discovered in Russia. Briefly talked with his daughter and it appears that we'll have the opportunity to see it in the very near future.
Usmar Ismail is regularly cited as the Godfather of Indonesian Cinema. But what is less frequently mentioned is the fact that this was an overt political decision. I like Ismail and his film work, as well as what he (tried to) accomplish(ed) in the early days of Indonesian National Cinema... but there was someone else with similar aspirations at the time: Bachtiar Siagian.
Ismail was the more conservative of the two, which is why he was essentially crowned as Indonesia's own Griffith or Hitchcock by Suharto's New Order government. Whereas Bachtiar was imprisoned and all his films were all destroyed. Bachtiar's films were much more overtly interested in issues of class and gender roles than Ismail's, which seemed to take upper middle class life as the default (or only) type of life worth dramatizing.
However, Violetta survived... somehow. I have yet to learn why it survived. And there's a copy on KG. It's pretty awful. Sound and image are both in rough shape (but image is much much worse). You can tell there's some beautiful imagery here, but it's bordering on impossible to figure out who is even in some scenes, let alone what they are doing.
To top it off, I'm not currently 100% certain that the scenes are in the correct order in the files available on KG. There's a scene in which a man brings a woman a bird as a gift for "defeating him" which I didn't understand whether or not this was some sort of idiom. About 15 minutes later she beats him in a game of chess. Should the bird have come later on? The only print of the film is currently sitting in Jakarta, and I hope to screen it later this year, so hopefully I'll have some answers eventually.
The film itself is relatively slight, most of its importance comes from being the sole insight into Bachtiar's filmography currently viewable* to those interested in it. But it's worthwhile. Someone on letterboxed compared it to Sirk, and I see that. It's a simple bourgeois family melodrama, but unlike in most of Ismail's films the servants are given a lot of screen time. The male love interest is kind of creepy. We're not sure whether Violetta's mother is completely wrong to disapprove of him or not. Gender and Class and Religion all form a whirlwind to make life impossible to navigate.
Wide shots at night are miserable.
Day sequences give a significantly better idea of the somewhat neorealist, somewhat impressionistic aesthetics of the film.
This is a close-up of a man's face. It's a rather important reaction shot. If he hadn't verbalized what he was feeling a moment later I'd have been lost.
*Just got word this week that a second Bachtiar film, Turang, has been discovered in Russia. Briefly talked with his daughter and it appears that we'll have the opportunity to see it in the very near future.
Last edited by Monsieur Arkadin on Sat Aug 03, 2024 3:40 pm, edited 4 times in total.
wow mr arkadin - cinephiles salute - bless u for yr work
indeedVery rischka-core
monsieur hulot's holiday summer vibe ♥
Anatomy of a Fall / Anatomie d'une chute (Triet, 2023)
By the time I finish getting through my 2023 films, I'm sure this will end up on top for that year. The acting was amazing.
9/10
By the time I finish getting through my 2023 films, I'm sure this will end up on top for that year. The acting was amazing.
9/10
twilight of the warriors: walled in (soi cheang 2024) upholding the legacy of hong kong action cinema w this epic battle between aging warlords sammo and louis koo for control of the walled city - always a fantastic setting. this is pt 1 of 3 which is very exciting to me!!
shout out to philip ng as a very creepy fun villain. great to see a new generation of HK actors coming up!!