SCFZ

I see I really do need to get serious about twitter I guess, unless there's another good platform to join that isn't facebook/instragram which I don't know about. I'm trying to avoid evil corps as much as possible.

edit - if anyone is interested in bound for the fields watch the black and white version!

really?? hmm. looks extraordinary. i can share this one if people are interested

edit: at the place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbKnurF5qu4

movie starts with a failed double suicide attempt, she dies and kamal doesn't, and he lives with the grief. kamal has a double role, second is as a kind of wandering comedian called chaplin chellapa who dresses like charlie chaplin and does vaudeville type routines. film debut of a.r. rahman, who plays keyboards in ilayaraja's ensemble.

greg x wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 9:51 am conformity and non-comformity, often playing out as a quasi-romance

Everything in Greg's first paragraph applies perfectly to Howard The Duck.

probably better suited to noirvember but i'm taking this opportunity to watch/rewatch the singing detective series (as in i think i saw some of it in the misty past on pbs)
-- and wow it sure nailed the casual misogyny of chandler.

applies perfectly to Howard The Duck.

Oh, man, how did I miss that?

And, yeah, I caught part of The Singing Detective, but never got a chance to finish it either. Thanks for the reminder!

no problem it's actually really good. i enjoy 40s music and michael gambon ♥ hou's dust in the wind was a beauty. i'd forgotten his relaxing pace. so this would be the same period/family covered by wu nien-jen's duo sang (1994) one of my favorite films. i'm sure that helped.

hmm, now that you mention Hou, that actually sounds more inviting at the moment. I'll have to see what I can make work at work.

(oh, and I finally did "join" twitter, I guess I had an account from 2008 I never fully activated, so I can pretend I'm not joining a possibly questionable company, i just haven't left it yet. Now I just gotta try to make myself stay within character limits, not an easy task, but one I'm sure others would better appreciate. Not gonna ask for follows since you all get the dubious pleasure of unlimited me already. I even took a different handle there to provide some plausible deniability for SCFZ should I cause a twitter ruckus somehow. Heh.)

SWAN SONG (Zhang Zeming). Bitter picture of the kinds of people destroyed by the so-called Cultural Revolution (who stubbornly cling to Old Ways and refuse to adapt to the New Thinking), those who managed not only to weather it but to succeed when it was all finally over, and the New Youth of the '80s.

One of a bunch of fine mainland films from this year, available in the place, very much recommended. Thanks, Rischka!

oke, not exactly 1986 (one year difference, i.e. 1985) but still a remarkable mid-1980s techno vibe.
https://youtu.be/EarSRa19sZc

twist again in moscow was not as excruciatingly awful as i hoped it would be (in fact felt more like they'd been watching a lot of 70s soviet comedies if anything and just thrown in a few more cliches)

but anyway, it had a christmas moment

1986 poll No6:

https://www.viennale.at/en/films/joan-does-dynasty
Long before the advent of Slavoj Žižek, U.S. academic Joan Braderman in 1986 offered a bracing exercise in standup theory and comic deconstruction in this half-hour unpacking on video of the most successful nighttime soap opera on television, which is said to be the favorite series of one hundred million people in 78 countries. Utilizing some of the special effects of co-director and co-editor Manuel De Landa to project herself literally into "Dynasty" and thereby critique its cultural and ideological underpinnings, Braderman manages to mix appreciation with scorn in almost equal quantities.

https://www.vdb.org/collection/browser- ... es-dynasty
“Joan Does Dynasty has become the classic feminist performance video of the era.“ —Yvonne Rainer

Hampshire College professor and stand-up theorist Joan Braderman takes on power and desire in TV’s campiest series. “Joan Does Dynasty,” a classic in feminist media deconstruction, is a hilarious look at the materialistic 80’s in the context of the ordinary working person’s life. Superimposing herself over portions of “Dynasty” and into the bedrooms, office suites and maids’ quarters of the super rich, Braderman asks, “Why do 100 million people in 78 countries welcome this department store of dressed-to-kill aliens into their homes every week?” Braderman provides a monologue, infused with a wicked sardonic flair, as she prances and preens through the most successful night-time soap opera of the 1980s. Along with a succinct critical analysis of the disturbing cultural assumptions inherent in the narrative, she has an unabashed appreciation of the show’s seductive power.

Joan Braderman's work is a key antecedent for the entire contemporary genre of performative media criticism and the so-called "LeftTube" generation of online theorists.

https://vimeo.com/203886769

https://www.academia.edu/5100013/JOAN_D ... ete_Script
JOAN DOES DYNASTY, 32 minutes, 1986, Complete Script

Hi. My name is Joan, and I'm American, like TV itself. I'm your local beatnik professor — as opposed to anchor-clone — an unabashed — well a bit bashed — sixties throwback type doing stand-up theory as TV infiltrator, media counterspy, and image cop. These campy creatures have been interceding in my key personal relations for several years now. I assigned myself to watch the show, to see how the thing works. Why do a hundred million people in 78 countries welcome this department store dressed-to-kill aliens into their homes every week?




...

OK, let's meet some more ghoulish Carringtons. There's Adam, who turned up late on the series as a kidnap-baby, but he's really the most deeply perverted macho. Kirby, the servant's daughter. Dimpled Jeff. In fact, most of these people have screwed each other already or will in the future. And I can't emphasize this enough — but since everyone's here in full regalia with fancy camera movements — let me say this is a show about incest, which, under the reign of Reagan, is the last taboo, but anything's better than extra-marital sex.

...

In Italy, it's called Even the Rich Have Tears, which Manuel, my partner, says is actually a rip-off of a Mexican Dynasty rip-off soap opera show. The biggest selling show in Germany is Dynasty. It's called Dollars. The Japanese love it. The Danes call it Oil. In Britain, to the distaste of intellectuals, who are appalled by the fact that it's on the BBC — PBS imports high-toned shit with British accent for us — and it's ironic that BBC buys libidinal odes to consumption for British intellectuals.

...

“Put the blame on Mame, boys. Put the blame on Mame. Mame gave a chump suchan ice cold „no‟ that for seven days they shoveled snow. So you can put the blame on Mame, boys. Put the blame on Mame.”

am not sure i'd find that ^ hilarious....(and come on how can you be funnier than žižek?) - & legitimising high-tone shit using britishness? (there isn't one accent and even so i'm not a genius)

i did read one of manuel delanda's books once although the main thing i remember about it was the pretty stripy rainbow cover which was reminiscent of some incredibly sexy shoes i was drooling over at the time, what you make of that, incest lady??

has anyone seen the ferreri from 86 where christopher lambert falls in love with his key-holder?

i have to admit that while watching JOAN DOES DYNASTY i thought she is mocking DALLAS.
only later (aided with the dilettante encyclopedia) i realized DALLAS and DYNASTY are two different things.
the local 1980s (communist) TV screen was devoid of DALLAS/DYNASTY.
it came here only later, after the Velvet Contra-Revolution (1989), as a part of the local process of restoration of capitalism (in the 1990s).
DALLAS on the local TV screen from 1992 till 1997.
DYNASTY on the local TV screen from 1994 till 1997.
in 1992, i moved from East Bohemian small town (from a household equipped with a TV set) to Prague (to study at uni), and thus starting with 1992 i alienated from TV culture (having different preoccupations and living in the rooms or flats devoid of a TV set).
however, (as already mentioned) watching DALLAS/DYNASTY was part of the local restoration of the capitalism (all-pervading) process, and thus even freaks without a TV set were not spared of its indirect influence.
i regret i didn't know about JOAN DOES DYNASTY in the 1990s.
if i knew, i would become a JOAN-DOES-DYNASTY-like TV evangelist then.

i also have to admit i liked she said about DYNASTY, "this is a show about incest under the reign of Reagan."
i am convinced incest is an integral part (and the ultimate endpoint) of the upper-class (conservative) lifestyle and of the conservative core set of values.
it seems to me it is only logical that those who emphasize the importance of family and who practice nepotism must also be inclined to seek their sexual partners within the family circle.
the only reason why the current noblemen & noblewomen are reluctant to fully embrace incest (and prevalently practice only its soft-core version of fornicating with members of a wider family) is that their creationist conviction is not as superstrong as it is supposed to be — they are not completely unfamiliar with the sinister consequences of incest (i.e. not completely unfamiliar with evolutionary biology).
however, i am sure if the current techno-feudalism will offer some technological final solution to incest (avoiding sinister consequences of incest via some additional haphazard genetic manipulation) upper-classes are gonna fully embrace it and gonna make incest legal (for noblemen & noblewoman).




last but not least, i am also convinced that the reality we live in is somehow upside down.

Luke 14:11
All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.

Psalm 75:3
When the earth goes topsy-turvy and nobody knows which end is up, I nail it all down, I put everything in place again.

sooo, we can see the true reality (the Truth) only if taking a topsy-turvy stance towards the upside-down reality.
thus i feel an affinity to topsy-turvy film criticism and topsy-turvy film critics!


and speaking about Manuel De Landa, i didn't read anything by him but watched 7+ of his films (so, listing him in another thread).

bound for the fields, mountains and the seacoast - deeply melancholy slapstick about desperate kids trying to stop the tide of events leading to war. obayashi's rage and pain thinly disguised as farce. b&w is so perfect i don't wanna see the color version - this will make my list for sure

I know I’m new, so feel free to discount…

The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky)
The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer)
Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
Terrorizers (Edward Yang)
Hovering Over the Water (Joao Cesar Monteiro)

His Motorbike, Her Island (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
Dead Man’s Letters (Konstantin Lopushansky)
Dust in the Wind (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
Trial on the Road (Aleksey German)

A Promise (Yoshishige Yoshida)
Rosa la Rose, Public Girl (Paul Vecchiali)
Tree Without Leaves (Kaneto Shindo)
Melo (Alain Resnais)
Faubourg St Martin (Jean-Claude Guiguet)

Shadows in Paradise (Aki Kaurismaki)
Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax)
Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix)
The Beekeeper (Theo Angelopoulos)
Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch)

greg x wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 9:51 am movies about monkey love

The monkey love was pretty one-sided in Link, but that was quite a movie. V. possible I liked it better than Romero's Monkeyshines.

rischka wrote: ↑Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:35 pm
bound for the fields, mountains and the seacoast

this really felt like an obayashi rosetta stone for me. even house makes so much more sense when you look at it in context with this one.

Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman)
Dust in the Wind (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
Mouna Raagam (Mani Ratnam)
Fauborg St. Martin (Jean-Claude Guiget)
His Motorcycle, Her Island (Nobuhiko Obayashi)

Tabarana Kathe (Girish Kasaravalli)
Melo (Alain Resnais)
A Flo do Mar (Joao Ceasar Monteiro)
Life is a Dream (Raul Ruiz)
Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark)

Martial Arts of Shaolin (Lau Kar-Leung)
Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer)
Shadows in Paradise (Aki Kaurismaki)
Cabaret (Haruki Kadokawa)

Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam (Sathyan Ankithad)
Grandeur & Decadence (Jean-Luc Godard)
Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax)
Crime Story Pilot (Abel Ferrra)
Miami Vice: Stone's War (David Jackson)

Flakotaso wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:08 pm
'Je vous salue, Marie' (Jean-Luc Godard)
Détective (Jean-Luc Godard)

these are both '85 on imdb

sarraounia is a total badass

oh i also watched working girls, most feminist film about prostitutes maybe? total 80s aesthetic

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1469 ... 72099?s=20

rischka wrote: ↑Wed Dec 15, 2021 1:26 am sarraounia is a total badass

If you haven't be sure to check out Hondo's earlier West Indies. Very different, but absolutely incredible.

Ruiz's Treasure Island is now '86, added it to my list.

Birds In A Tranquil Place was bucolic and bland; I'm afraid I won't make it to the other two V. movies...

but Games Without Frontiers: The Movie was extraordinarily weird and rich. Many thanks to Rischka for that one. Dazzling. Er, I mean Bound For The Fields etc.
I'm convinced the yakuza's henchmen were modeled after the Three Stooges.

omg yr right - it's larry, moe and curly!

52 Pick-Up
Al Baree' (The Innocent Man)
Crocodile Dundee
De aanslag (The Assault)
Der Name der Rose (The Name of the Rose)
F/X
Flodder
Jean de Florette + Manon des sources (Jean de Florette + Manon of the Spring)
La gran fiesta (The Big Party)
Legal Eagles
Lucas
Mirch Masala (A Touch of Spice)
Mona Lisa
Qing chun ji (Sacrificed Youth)
Sweet Liberty
The Big Easy
The Color of Money
Varjoja paratiisissa (Shadows in Paradise)
Working Girls
Ying hung boon sik (A Better Tomorrow)

Deliberately excluded (IMDb/TSPDT/S&S top 500)
Aliens
Blue Velvet
Down by Law
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Hannah and Her Sisters
Kong bu fen zi
Le rayon vert
Offret
Platoon
Stand by Me
Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta

To see before the deadline
El Towk Wa El Eswera
Genesis
Madian

Wanted
Heidenlöcher
La storia

David Thomson (From: “Have You Seen…?” A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films)

David Thomson (From: “Have You Seen…?” A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films)

David Thomson (From: “Have You Seen…?” A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films)