SCFZ

The Man Who Wasn't There is peak Coens. Maximally stylized, densely novelistic script... It did the 'Barton Fink' thing better (at least for me) than Barton Fink did. And it fits into this month's noiretc focus.

i really enjoyed the cat's meow -- FAR more than most of bogo's films



many great character actors here but eddie izzard (as chaplin!) and joanna lumley (elinor glyn) stole the show. kirsten dunst is well cast as marion davies



edward herrmann is very effective as hearst.

cary elwes plays silent film director thomas ince, who died mysteriously after a fateful yachting trip, 99 years ago this month

Sia, the Myth of the Python, dir. Dani Kouyaté

Really wish there'd be a restoration for this one.





Dani Kouyaté had already demonstrated mastery of storytelling, embellished with tradition and mythology with a mystical air with Keita! The Voice of the Griot 6 years prior, and so he returns with this complex, immensely visually rich film.





As with Keita! it doubles as a commentary on traditional values. This one a more scathing critique of religion, its effects on the people, and how that can be manipulated by the ruling classes.

Human Nature - Michel Gondry, screenpkay by Charley Kaufman.

Would have been very suitable for Jiri's old "feminine hirsute" category in the old games. It surprises me to see a Kaufman script where he doesn't clown himself, and he didn't here. Nlot totally.

Butterfly Smile, dir. He Jianjun

No subs for this one unfortunately, but I believe they aren't fully needed.





I enjoyed the usage of creative story-telling methods, and the film is undeniably very pleasing to the eyes. I'd have to say I'm a bigger fan of Jianjun's other work but this one is also worth a watch.

The Deserted Valley AKA Thung lũng hoang vắng
dir. Phạm Nhuệ Giang

A very pretty drama directed by an underrated female filmmaker which tackles all sorts of social issues. Starts off with a relatively slow pace, as it lets you take in all the breathtaking scenery which Phạm eventually makes great use of for the narrative.





Could relate to this quite a bit with my own pedagogical experience, which made some crucial moments especially impactful emotionally for me. But I speak without any bias when I highly suggest this film.





Had a hard time choosing stills for this one. Very picturesque.

thx for these frisson i'm going to check them out!

rischka wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 8:44 pm thx for these frisson i'm going to check them out!

Hopefully you'll enjoy 'em, Rischka!

GO dir. Isao Yukisada

Sadly didn't take screenshots for this one, but I really liked it. I don't think I've seen a movie that deals with the issue of Korean discrimination in Japan before. Behind its apparent light-hearted tone lies a tragic portrayal of racism, with a touch of sensible coming-of-age. It's charming in the way that Blue Spring was also very charming for me.

Caught Between Worlds was quite well done, but not nearly good enough to make my list. I do love early CGI, but the vibe of this kind of felt wrong. It was more of a fever dream, which I prefer something more chill in the first place, and it lacked the top tier surrealism that you would see in something like Dream Journal.

Perfect Lover would have been great if it was indeed a softcore porno. It was quite interesting with how it played with power dynamics and gender roles, and considering the audience for porn back then that would have made it quite subversive. This was more of just a sex comedy so it didn't really go for that subversive angle I wanted and just made this more interesting yet mediocre than anything.

Last Run shows that I'm kind of unlucky with certain action films. I keep seeing Armand Assante's action films to be considered lean and straight to the point masterpieces. The plot setups don't really feel engaging or silly enough for me, and the action scenes tend to not be entertaining for me. It is lean and direct, but lacks the insanity that lower budget action films have. At least it was better than Federal Protection.

Josie and the Pussycats was a huge surprise. Right at the opening scene I knew this was gonna be insane. It is VERY unsubtle with its satire on pop music and consumerism related to it, but because of how absurdist it is, knocking you over with its message with a sledgehammer worked in its favour. A good example were the use of product placement. Because it is about consumerism you see it EVERYWHERE, and it goes so far that it makes it hilarious. For example, an aquarium had evian on the walls, or a shower booth had mcdonalds toys and its logo all over the place. It's making my final list for sure.

sia will make my list ♥ i also enjoyed the deserted valley, it was certainly beautiful but i was a little confused by all the drama in a tiny mountain top village
(and i might have to watch josie and the pussycats/cat-related!) edit: one of my lb follows described it as girl power fight club SOLD

it's like 'they live' for girls. parker posey ♥♥♥ alan cumming as the villains



the product placement is hilarious. tara reid has a mcdonald's bathroom

final

A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Millennium Mambo
Mulholland Drive
Pulse

Domestic Violence
I’m Going Home
Va Savoir (Who Knows?)
What Time Is It There?

Fragile as the World
Self and Others
Time Out
Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?

Elegy of a Voyage
Something to Remind Me
Spirited Away
Toutes les nuits

In Praise of Love
Sunshine for the Poor
Take Care of My Cat
West Side Avenue

~ another worth mention ~

Ghost World, Harmful Insect, Monster, Inc., One Fine Spring Day, Sorum, That Old Dream That Moves, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Man Who Wasn’t There, The Piano Teacher, Waikiki Brothers, Work On Progress, ...

rischka wrote: ↑Tue Nov 14, 2023 4:38 pm it was certainly beautiful but i was a little confused by all the drama in a tiny mountain top village

definitely however I was in the mood for some drama so I didn't mind, the characters also kept it interesting for me. glad to hear about Sia!

last supper at the arabian gray horse (jancsó) ok i've been missing out on the director's late career. this was HILARIOUS











our 'hero' (and god) rather reminds me of richard e grant's withnail character but that can't be right





some things i enjoy: music of every genre including hiphop, lots of wild dancing and abundant absurdist black humor. even if i don't understand wth is going on

look for jancsó's cameo on the maid of the mist at niagara falls THX SALLY ♥

i'm still going to watch the olmi i think

ok i had to bone up on the italian wars between france and the hapsburgs. and watched a nerd video about being a medieval time traveler i'm ready

Il mestiere delle armi







in the last days of swords and armor and early days of artillery



it's not at all glamorous. i think an amputation was shown but i couldn't watch it very fine film on futility of warfare

Akai hashi no shita no nurui mizu (Warm Water Under a Red Bridge)
Baran
Bella Martha (Mostly Martha)
Berlin Is in Germany
Concorrenza sleale (Unfair Competition)
Hatuna Meuheret (Late Marriage)
Khang lang phap (Behind the Painting)
La chambre des officiers (The Officers' Ward)
Lantana
Le pacte des loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf)
L'emploi du temps (Time Out)
Loin (Far Away)
Minoes (Miss Minoes)
Monsoon Wedding
Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa)
Protection
Shiqi sui de dan che (Beijing Bicycle)
Slogans
Sur mes lèvres (Read My Lips)
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

Deliberately excluded (IMDb/Lbxd/TSPDT/S&S top 500)
A Beautiful Mind
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Dil Chahta Hai
Donnie Darko
La Ciénaga
La pianiste
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
Monsters, Inc.
Morvern Callar
Mulholland Dr.
No Man's Land
Qianxi mànbo
Riri Shushu no subete
Samurai Jack: The Premiere Movie
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Sennen joyû
Shrek
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Royal Tenenbaums
Trouble Every Day
Vizontele
Y tu mamá también
Yeopgijeogin geunyeo

To see before the deadline
Skoot hansawwar

Wanted
Paszport

sia, le rêve du python - kouyaté
red persimmons - ogawa
fate - zeki
where does your hidden smile lie? - costa
pistol opera - suzuki
zu warriors - tsui
the cat's meow - bogdanovich
millenium actress - kon
running out of time 2 - to/law
domestic violence - wiseman
what time is it there? - tsai
la libertad - alonso
AI - spielberg
sunshine for the poor - guiraudie
paper airplanes - zhao
los - benning
la cienega - martel
last supper at the arabian grey horse - jancsó
wu yen - to/wai
the profession of arms - olmi

i can't get enthused about placing these in any kind of order so...

I've been quite busy with life and other things, so unfortunately I'm not gonna finish my (highly ambitious) list! But I did rack up quite a large amount of films from the year which I'm quite happy about.

Electric Dragon 80.000 V, dir. Gakuryu Ishii
Bones, dir. Ernest R. Dickerson
GO, dir. Isao Yukisada
Sia, la rêve du python, dir. Dani Kouyaté

Persian Series #18, dir. Stan Brakhage (bit hard to choose one from the whole 13 - 18)
Blue Spring, dir. Toshiaki Toyoda
The Deserted Valley, dir. Phạm Nhuệ Giang
Legally Blonde, dir. Robert Luketic (dunno how I'd forgotten this in the initial list)

Bintou, dir. Fanta Régina Nacro
You Shoot, I Shoot, dir. Pang Ho-cheung
The Living Room, dir. Michael Snow
Munkphilm, dir. Courtney Hoskins

Makibefo, dir. Alexander Abela
Images of the Orient - "Vandalic Tourism", dir. Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi
Butterfly Smile, dir. He Jianjun
Hotere, dir. Merata Mita

Married to a Witch, dir. Fred Amata
Shomõtsi, dir. Wewito Piyãko
And Deliver Us from Evil, dir. Si Yabosokanen
Soldiers United for Cash, dir. Ariel Santschi

that's the only brakhage i've ever seen in cinema, i actually found it a really strange experience watching a completely silent film with an audience where half the people didn't know what they were getting into, and it wasn't as immersive or overwhelming as i was hoping it would be -- not because of the film but because of the circumstances of presentation. i think i prefer watching that kind of film on my own, even if that means watching a digital transfer, though i know that's sacrilege to some people.

flip wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:19 am i think i prefer watching that kind of film on my own, even if that means watching a digital transfer, though i know that's sacrilege to some people.

I can definitely relate to this, I've had quite a few film experiences where I ended up having a much better time watching it by myself afterwards—as you say—not really because of the movie itself but the associated theater experience. Funnily enough, one of those experiences was Anticipation of the Night, also by Brakhage, where I ended up having a similar experience to what you described.

The sad thing about the Persian Series is that, apart from a couple shorts, the whole thing is available in suboptimal quality and is watermarked. But regardless of that I still loved it.

Not a good year for cinema, but probably the only year you'll ever see me put an animated movie on any of these lists.

Killing Mad Dogs
Baran
Failan
The Royal Tennenbaums

Late Marriage
Sprited Away
Taking Sides (Szabo)
The Road (Omirbaev)

No Man's Land
Gosford Park
Invincible (Herzog)
What Time Is It There?

Beijing Bicycle
Toutes les nuits
Millennium Mambo
Warm Water under a Red Bridge

Lovely Rita
The Man Who Wasn't There
Taurus
One Fine Spring Day

https://kinometer.com/?list=522

Red Persimmons (Shinsuke Ogawa, Peng Xiaolian, 2001, 90m)
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2001, 90m)
Maillart's Bridges (Heinz Emigholz, 2001, 24m)
Exprmntl Kbh (Alice Růžičková, 2001, 37m)
Passing Summer (Angela Schanelec, 2001, 85m)
Lovely Rita (Jessica Hausner, 2001, 79m)
Nuisance (Frans van de Staak, 2001, 72m)
Expulsion from Paradise (Věra Chytilová, 2001, 124m)

Impressions from Rustaveli (Nana Tchitchoua, 2001, 14m)
The Green Ray (Tacita Dean, 2001, 2m)
The Flickering of the Mind's Eye (Jon Behrens, 2001, 10m)
Dream Work (Peter Tscherkassky, 2001, 10m)
Photograph of Wind (Lynne Sachs, 2001, 3m)
Otherrehto (Julie Murray, 2001, 3m)
Looking Up (Francis Alÿs, 2001, 4m)
N°2023 Daniel Pommereulle (Gérard Courant, 2001, 3m)

Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg)
Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
La ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel)

Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)
La libertad (Lisandro Alonso)
Passing Summer (Angela Schanelec)
Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon)
Porto of My Childhood (Manoel de Oliveira)

The Man Who Wasn't There (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)
Maillart's Bridges (Heinz Emigholz)
Fulltime Killer (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)

Final list:

La Cienaga (Lucrecia Martel)
Lantana (Ray Lawrence)
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
The Man Who Wasn't There (Coen brothers)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg)

The Pledge (Sean Penn)
Ali (Michael Mann)
Spy Game (Tony Scott)
Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Chris Columbus)

Ocean's Eleven (Steven Soderbergh)
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (Woody Allen)
Hannibal (Ridley Scott)
Heist (David Mamet)
The Others (Alejandro Amenabar)

Blow (Ted Demme)
Hearts in Atlantis (Scott Hicks)
The Tailor of Panama (John Boorman)
A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard)
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)

I know it doesn't count but I'll just list it anyways

Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
Sex & Lucia (Medem)
In Praise of Love (Godard)
The Piano Teacher (Haneke)
Late Marriage (Koshaili) To this day I still find this to perhaps be the most realistic sex scene ever filmed.

Warm Water On a Red Bridge (Imamura)
Pulse (Kurosawa)
Mostly Martha (Nettelback)
Suicide Club (Sono)
Amelie (Jeunet)

Donnie Darko (Kelly)
In The Bedroom (Fields)
No Such Thing (Hartley)
Cat's Meow (Bogdanovich)
Ghost World (Zwigoff) * Yeah, THIS one reminds me of how old I am..

Trouble Every Day (Denis)
The Grey Zone (Nelson) * This was squashed upon it's release because of 9-11
Mad Love (Aranda)
Joy Ride (Dahl) * the director's alternate ending is fantastic. It's on the DVD. Scripted by JJ Abrams
Dagon (Gordon) * overlooked adaptation of HP Lovecraft story

sally wrote: ↑Wed Nov 01, 2023 6:33 pm wake up! - laila pakalniņa
nuisance - frans van de staak
a dog's day - murali nair
on the old roman road - don askarian
fate - zeki demirkubuz
last supper at the arabian gray horse - miklós jancsó
the road - darezhan omirbayev
passing summer - angela schanelec
this filthy earth - andrew kötting
sunshine for the poor - alain guiraudie
maillart’s bridges - heinz emigholz
toutes les nuits - eugène green
fragile as the world - rita azevedo gomes
workers, peasants - jean-marie straub, danièle huillet
where does your hidden smile lie? - pedro costa
en construcción - josé luis guerín
elegy of a voyage - aleksandr sokurov
late marriage - dover koshashvili
va savoir - jacques rivette
the lady and the duke - éric rohmer

This is why I love this damn board. I haven't seen any of these and the only names I know are Sokurov, Rivette & Rohmer

Angel wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 3:33 pm Samurai Jack: The Premiere Movie

This is gonna sound like I'm just name dropping but I briefly went to college with Genndy before he went out west and broke big in Hollywood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uvlCjcT7oM&t=17s
Here he's answering a few online q's for Wired