Last Watched

[Roscoe]

Watched TAR and was not impressed. I liked Fields' earlier film a lot, and was surprised to see how frigid and sterile this whole enterprise was. Has Fields sold his soul to Christopher Nolan?

[rischka]

Yeah I saw it described as succession core and that tracks

I'm watching nightmare alley and why is everything 3 hrs long now. It is really good, shocker since I generally hate Bradley Cooper. The drawl works for him. Thx lencho for the heads up. Only like 45 mins to go

[Silga]

I remember, I was genuinely surprised by how much I loved Nightmare Alley. A very beautiful film.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Yeah, I was surprised myself -- general opinion on it doesn't seem that favorable, but it had so much going for it.

EDIT: I guess the nay-sayers are noir fanbros, protecting their franchise.

[nrh]

EDIT: I guess the nay-sayers are noir fanbros, protecting their franchise.

the noir fanbros don't even care much for the '40s version, and neither the book nor spain's comic adaptation seem to be all that well known either.

mostly everyone just found del toro's approach to the material laughable (only made it about 20 minutes in before giving up so i can't really speak to the movie with any authority). but i am not sure del toro had much credibility left in cinephile circles after shape of water...

[rischka]

last del toro i watched was pacific rim in 2013

[nrh]

crimson peak doesn't really work in the end but it's definitely worth watching, especially if you like Old Dark House Melodramas. if nothing else one of those movies where it is hard to believe it got greenlit by hollywood at all.

[flip]

i've never thought myself a 'noir fanbro', but who knows, i guess i've watched a lot of noir anyway. i really like the original nightmare alley, and didn't like what del toro did to it at all. hard to know what i would have thought if i hadn't been familiar with the original first, tho

[rischka]

anyone watched his pinocchio? i might give it a shot

i don't know about 'noirbros' but between the 3 of us i don't doubt we've seen more noirs than the vast majority of people on letterboxd or off

[ofrene]

anyone watched his pinocchio? i might give it a shot

it's very good! definitely worth a look..

[rischka]

thank you! i will have a look



DJANGO has the best theme song



so italian whilst also saying important things about america



franco nero is really fine but i can't help imagining he smells bad

[rischka]

had fun with gosha secret of the urn - aside from a woman being whipped in the first scene this is somehow the second film in a row that opened that way which maybe should tell me to stop watching bro-cinema? but instead i've decided to do a zatoichi marathon can't remember which ones i've seen so starting at the beginning.... hey at least it's not hanzo the razor (i'm not watching that)

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

aside from a woman being whipped in the first scene

Oh, do we not like when movies open like this? Maybe I'm gay, but...


(I kid, of course. I usually have to engage in 'resistant spectatorship' to find something of value in such representations, and I never succeed much with that when it's true bro-cinema.)

[rischka]

i make an exception for christopher lee in bava's the whip and the body

[nrh]

the zatoichi series makes for a pretty fun marathon. the first three movies make a kind of trilogy, much bleaker in tone than most of the rest of the movies. some of the later movies get a bit repetitive but the directing is almost always very high quality.

hanzo the razor trilogy is just a weird object. the film industry was in total free fall at that time and there is a real sense of desperation about what to do next. tellingly a lot of the early '70s pink films, many of which were aimed at women or at least co-ed audiences, are much less ugly than something like the hanzo trilogy.

[Roscoe]

EDIT: I guess the nay-sayers are noir fanbros, protecting their franchise.

the noir fanbros don't even care much for the '40s version, and neither the book nor spain's comic adaptation seem to be all that well known either.

mostly everyone just found del toro's approach to the material laughable (only made it about 20 minutes in before giving up so i can't really speak to the movie with any authority). but i am not sure del toro had much credibility left in cinephile circles after shape of water...

I read NIGHTMARE ALLEY and enjoyed the hell out of it, and watched the 40s version which is hamstrung by the Production Code strictures, it just makes a hash of the novel, despite some fine glimmers. The story is just too watered down, and the ending is a joke.

I did give the Del Toro film a try, and also tuned out soon after starting. Laughable indeed. Del Toro's a hack.

[rischka]

ahh well film cred demolished, i like a hack

i watched susan seidelman's smithereens last night, unaccountably on youtube for free! the 80s were ugly. i respect her decision to make the lead character despicable. fun fashions and score by the feelies




zatoichi is such a great character. the first one reminds me why i love samurai films so much

[rischka]

the zatoichi series makes for a pretty fun marathon. the first three movies make a kind of trilogy, much bleaker in tone than most of the rest of the movies. some of the later movies get a bit repetitive but the directing is almost always very high quality.

what are your favorite ones

[wba]

hey at least it's not hanzo the razor

Hanzo the Razor

[wba]

Oh, do we not like when movies open like this?

Whipping in movies!!!

[nrh]

it's been long enough since i did a zatoichi marathon that a lot of them have blurred together in my head, but i think the you can't really go wrong with pretty much anything up to about the first 10 or so, with fight zatoichi fight and zatoichi's flashing sword being my favorites after the opening trilogy (i also love adventures of zatoichi but i seem to be fairly alone in that). i never quite loved chest of gold but that is one of the consensus favorites.

for the later movies i love samiritan zatoichi, which is one of kenji misumi's loveliest movies. two late entries, fire festival and zatoichi in desperation, are great but very bleak, heading into the more violent '70s in a way that feels strange for the series. there are some kind of routine entries but i think the only ones i really dislike are the stunt casting yojimbo and one armed swordsman movies.

[rischka]

awesome ty i knew you'd watched them all at some point

i got the trilogy plus adventures, pilgrimage, challenged, fire festival, and yojimbo plus the '89 zatoichi

will add fight, zatoichi, fight, zatoichi's flashing sword and samaritan zatoichi! that should keep me busy for awhile

[rischka]

does a beautiful girl try to marry ichi in every one of these films? he's always deeply humbled but alas



flashing sword was excellent! that long dark scene and then the fireworks! ok i'll stop letting ichi monopolize the thread. thx for your help nathan

[thoxans]

bobby deerfield (sydney pollack) don't understand the hate...? you know that reaction you have to something that's been wayyy overhyyyped for wayyy too long, and by the time you get to it, it's like 'yeah ok that was fine but whatever'? and idk maybe i had the opposite/equivalent reaction to this one; something that's been wayyy playyyed down for wayyy too long, and by the time i got to it, it's like 'yeah ok but i don't understand the hate...?' sure, it's not perfect, but it's not what it's made out to be. captures a certain mood, sentimentality, sincerity, whatever. pacino is always good, especially early pacino. my god, that hair. the sunglasses. pollack, who's really just a workmanlike dir at the end of the day, offers a nice amerigaze to europe and its sensibilities. sure, it's sometimes corny, melodramatic. but shrugmeh. it is what it is; and it's a character study about a man who isn't worried about death, but is worried about dying, and a woman who isn't worried about dying, but is worried about death

[---]

thoxans???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[rischka]

don't startle him



watched my last zatoichi for awhile - '89 is a good place to end. old zatoichi is still spry! he even got to film himself getting it on in a hot tub with a lady yakuza boss. viva zatoichi

[rischka]

continuing in escapist spiral i'm about to embark on tsui hark's detective dee trilogy



last night's insane feature: the miracle fighters (yuen woo-ping 1982)

[Pretentious Hipster]

The Devil Conspiracy. The most fucked up film ever made, and I've seen some things

https://twitter.com/PretentiousHip1/sta ... 6022907905

If I said the context of this scene... you would not believe me.

It's from the director of a creationist doc that said the holocaust and communism was caused by the theory of evolution.

[rischka]

andy lau is great as detective dee! but rise of the sea dragon is even better



four heavenly kings don't let me down (i expect the empress wins this one)



i'm in awe of this lady's hairstyles

[Silga]

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (Joan Chen, 1998) 9/10

This is one of the best and most heartbreaking films I've seen in a long time. Breathtaking Tibet scenery, touching story and great acting by Xiaolu Li and Lopsang. A beautiful, somber music too. A wonderful debut from Joan Chen. Would love to see it in cinema on a big screen.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KruIsKfFqgo