SCFZ

Watkins is an intellectual film maker in the more pejorative sense. He makes very long, largely text based films that are far too literal and lacking in cinematic value. He is the complete opposite of Syberberg, for example, who has a stronger aesthetic and understands that visual beauty is important and serves a number of different functions. e.g mystery, suggestion etc.

The idea that he is creating a 'dialectic' is pure nonsense to me. He is visually illiterate. Straub-Huillet and Syberberg create real dialectics in cinema in terms of ideas/visual presentation. Watkins is like that person who gets up and rambles in monotone without being remotely aware of how dull and uninteresting they are. I also get that impression that like Loach, he thinks he has 'transcended the aesthetic' or something of that nature, which is complete hubris.

To buy into Watkins you really have to buy into his politics in a way that isn't even applicable for Straub-Huillet. When I watch The Death of Empedocles, for example, it doesn't matter to me that Straub's idea of a 'greener pasture' might be a form of left wing politics that I disagree with because I can simply relate to the universal sentiment. I don't walk away with the same feeling from Watkins' work.

A "dialectic" where the values expressed don't matter isn't much of a dialectic. Which is precisely the problem with Straub-Huillet, feeding, as they do the narrow interests of the distanced, self-styled, intellectual class. Charming theoretical inertia made to order for those who like their politics kept away from the masses. Munch, being about art and culture is also appealing to a more "specialized" set of interests, and fair enough to place, say, The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach in a somewhat like category and prefer it if you like, but the more political films from each are a whole different matter.

^I dislike most of the purely political films of S/H as well, but they are still far superior film makers to Watkins. I have no idea what you are talking about in relation to values in S/H, nor its relation to dialectics in the philosophical sense. There is more ambiguity and aesthetic value in their better films than Watkins as well as universal meaning. No doubt they are guilty of reductionism at times, but that is part and parcel of that kind of film making. The same applies to Godard in his worst moments too.

The invincibles (dominik graf, 1994). A baroque, pulpy, over-the-top police drama. Some of it is quite outrageous and operatic. This is the kind of movie where a woman whispers ‘you scare me’ as she passionately makes love to a cop. lol. But it was a lot of fun nonetheless. I think I like The Cat, his more sober heist movie, a little more though.

DOUBT -- Shanley's tedious little play has become a tedious little film, under his own tedious direction which has one interesting element in that it totally removes all of the titular doubt from the proceedings. Seeing the play, it was possible to respect the way the waters kept being muddied, you really couldn't be sure one way or the other. Philip Seymour Hoffman can't be bothered with ambiguity -- his all caps bold and underlined GUILT is right there from the start.

SVENGALI -- dvr'd from TCM's John Barrymore day, and mostly thoroughly enjoyed after not having seen it in years. The drawback(s) to the film are pretty much anyone in the cast not named Barrymore -- they're barely one dimensional. Happily there's plenty of cool camerawork, Anton Grot Caligariesque sets, and Barrymore having a great time from start to finish, conjuring real menace with a slight change in posture, and then managing near film's end to elicit actual sympathy for the beast. Yeah. I dug it.

petzold - transit (2018) a terrific film. a war story transposed in time, a ghostly homage to casablanca. this was even better than pheonix



thx greennui for recommending this!

Transit is so good. Can't think of many contemporary films that exudes the qualities of a great classic film all whilst remaining highly modern.

It's also rare that I get so taken by the performances of two new-to-me actors. Franz Rogowski is like a subtler, more low-key Joaquin Phoenix and Paula Beer's got the big, haunted eyes of a much older woman.

THE CIRCUS -- Chaplin's film feels more transitional somehow, more in terms of content than anything else, meaning the comedy is still funny and the pathos doesn't get mawkish, but there are some danger signs, as some bits go on longer than they should and the Tramp's adoration of that piece of paper he cast as a female lead seems forced. Still, some good laughs, but I doubt I'll ever bother with it again.

Pájaros de verano (birds of summer!!) - recommended by lencho. loved the build up and focus on wayuu people, largest indigenous group in colombia. lots of arresting imagery



it devolves into generic drug gang war but the first half was grand. also many birds featured



thx for recommending this lencho!

BULLITT -- enjoyable enough, even if the car chase is really the star of the movie, and that green VW is the most accomplished scene stealer since Barry Fitzgerald. Watched it last night and now can't really remember all that much about it. One odd little moment has stayed with me, when Jacqueline Bisset settles down with a nice bowl of cereal, picks up her spoon and takes exactly one specific piece of shredded wheat to put into her mouth.

rischka wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 4:13 am thx

Glad you liked it, Rischka! First half was far more interesting, yeah. Javier hated it, for all the right reasons.

^there were some pretty nasty abuse/rape allegations against the male half of the pajaros filmmaking team as well...his last movie (and english language debut) got pretty lukewarm reception, which is one reason they might have disappeared a bit

https://volcanicas.com/2020/06/24/ocho- ... ro-guerra/

CANCELLED

anyways i need to get back to 2004

watched 'wait til the sun shines, nellie' on cinephobe and it took some bold turns, henry king always doing something interesting with all too human characters

rischka wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:58 am watched 'wait til the sun shines, nellie' on cinephobe and it took some bold turns, henry king always doing something interesting with all too human characters

The first movie David Lynch recalls seeing was Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie, a downbeat drama directed by Henry King in 1952. “I saw it at a drive-in with my parents, and I remember a scene where a guy is machine-gunned in a barber’s chair and another scene of a little girl playing with a button,” Lynch has recalled. “Suddenly her parents realize she’s gotten it caught in her throat, and I remember feeling a real sense of horror.”

ha! yeah it absolutely was not the film it appeared to be at first. don't wanna spoil it but there are some real surprises

i can see how it may have inspired lynch's view of the hidden underbelly of life in idyllic seeming circumstances

Lucy (Besson, 2014).

If you're in the mood for mindless fast action with lots of thrills, car chases, gunnings-down, Scarlet Johansson and cgi, this one's for you, and it'll be a lot of fun.

Oh I hated that one, Morgan Freeman smugly explaining the science behind the completely nonsensical thing we're seeing is one of the worst Hollywood tropes to me. And I like Besson a lot.

36 hours w/james garner and eva marie saint. fairly standard espionage with a neat idea at the core: garner is kidnapped by the germans who try to convince him the war is over and he has a form of amnesia in order to get him to reveal details of the impending D-day invasion. thx again cinephobe

https://bmoreart.com/2020/05/the-cineph ... night.html

A Voz e o Vazio: A Vez de Vassourinha (Carlos Adriano, 1998) - Neat experimental documentary short depicting the brief, successful career of an obscure samba singer who died young via archival material and his music.

Can be watched with eng subs here: https://www.cinelimite.com/post/vassourinha

I'm starting to go through the Youssef Chahine films on Netflix. The first one, Dark Waters, promises good stuff to come. It stars Omar el-Cherif (aka Sharif) as a sailor returning to Alexandria after three years, hoping to marry his beloved Hamedah and getting embroiled in a nasty dispute between stevedores and their wealthy employer. The story spans 24 hours, similar to Othello with a few major changes plus a serving of class politics. The acting is outstanding especially Sharif, the actress playing Hamedah, and the Iago character. The plot strains for the desired ending, the last scene is way too much, and Sharif's character is a cut-out abusive macho hothead... but wow what great use of Alexandria harbor locations! And for all the story's faults, Chahine keeps it coiled tightly, not wasting any time.

greennui wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 3:53 pm A Voz e o Vazio: A Vez de Vassourinha (Carlos Adriano, 1998) - Neat experimental documentary short depicting the brief, successful career of an obscure samba singer who died young via archival material and his music.

Can be watched with eng subs here: https://www.cinelimite.com/post/vassourinha

ty greennui this checks all of my boxes

https://www.aiweiwei.com/coronation

ai weiwei's film about the wuhan lockdown streaming here

hmm well i had to pay 6 dollars but that's not unreasonable. it's on kg now too. i counted 14 camera operators and 4 drone operators on this 'remotely' directed film

quite interesting

Inertia led me to leave IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT on TCM last night, and inertia turned to pure sweet magical delight, because that's what IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT does, it makes everything better for at least its running time.

i'm having mark rappaport day (10 of his essay films available https://vimeo.com/filmmuseummuenchen until 9th september) and i just burst into tears because 10 seconds of india song music and a shot of michael lonsdale

twodeadmagpies wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:10 pm i'm having mark rappaport day (10 of his essay films available https://vimeo.com/filmmuseummuenchen until 9th september) and i just burst into tears because 10 seconds of india song music and a shot of michael lonsdale

I just watched Anna/Nana/Nana/Anna, feels kinda hard to believe that the adorable girl from The Girl with a Hatbox and the beautiful but rather nondescript Hollywood actress are the same person.

i didn't even make the connection between hatbox and the wedding night! also that one featured a clip from the most annoying performance ever committed to film (renoir's nana) so my brain melted a bit

the dachau film was the most engaging for me - sublime attempt to reclaim the tracking shot from the cahiers' sneer

thx, got home late and need something short!! will watch conrad veidt: my life

MrCarmady wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:32 pm Oh I hated that one, Morgan Freeman smugly explaining the science behind the completely nonsensical thing we're seeing is one of the worst Hollywood tropes to me. And I like Besson a lot.

It doesn't help that everyone now accepts he possesses God's Own Voice ©. Yeah, Freeman's film parts are now so mindlessly predictable.