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resonant111
left ∞ right
Registered: 03/02/11
Posts: 1,952
Loc: IL
Last seen: 2 years, 3 months
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good, cuz' my opinion is pretty worthless, this is actually a pretty cool thread.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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Re: Burke's 1001 Movie Project [Re: resonant111]
#16657403 - 08/06/12 10:09 PM (11 years, 7 months ago) |
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#275
Sabotage (G.B., 1936)
Another bit of suspense from Hitchcock. A mysterious saboteur is attempting to carry out a bombing plot, but manages to kill a kid, which makes for a mother seeking revenge. This film seemed like average work for Hitchcock (which still makes it miles ahead of most filmmakers), and apart from a few excellent scenes, there was nothing here that overly impressed me.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#276
La Strada (Italy/France, 1954)
This film was made by Federico Fellini during his "neo-realism" period, and it's incredible. The premise is fairly simple: a young woman is basically sold off to an asshole who does a traveling "strongman" circus-type act, and forces his "wife" (played perfectly by Giulietta Masina) to get into the act as a clown. She falls in love with a tight-rope walker and prankster, whom the strongman kills, driving Gelsimina (Masina) insane. The whole thing ends tragically, but the film is full of fun and funny moments. Lots of sentiment and feeling are drawn out of the actors by Fellini and his already talented cast. The imagery is sharp and undeniably potent. This is the third Fellini film I've seen, and he is definitely becoming one of my favorite filmmakers of all time.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#277
Dangerous Liaisons (U.S., 1988)
This film is a period piece set in 18th century France. Two high-ranking aristocrats decide to play a game wherein the guy is supposed to seduce and deflower a young woman (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who is known throughout the aristocracy for being chaste and virtuous. The sets and costumes are lush, and John Malkovich and Glenn Close play "sophisticated sleaze" perfectly. Not a bad movie, but not one I'd watch again.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#278
Planet of the Apes (U.S., 1968)
I was surprised how much I liked this film, given that it had so many bad remakes, and just extreme potential for cheesiness. It opens with a space/time travel team who lands on a planet a few thousand years in the future. The lead, played by Charleton Heston, learns that the planet is ruled by "damn dirty apes" when he is taken captive for scientific observation. The film has themes of classism, racism, and "science as a faith", among other things. Did the "What a Twist!" ending decades before Shamalyn. Also, the main apes were great actors, even through dense makeup and costuming. Great movie.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#279
The Grapes of Wrath (U.S., 1940)
This film is an excellent adaptation of John Steinbeck's famous novel (which I have not read) about the Joad family, sharecroppers from Oklahoma forced from their farm. They take to the road, looking to work as fruit pickers in California, and are repeatedly beaten back by overwhelming obstacles, but persist. This handsomely filmed movie gives me a more profound understanding of what my grandparents went through during the Great Depression. My grandmother grew up poor on a Kansan farm afflicted by the dust bowl, and later in life, all she would say about it when pressed was: "They were hard times." This film gives me an iota of an idea of what that meant.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#280
The Piano (Australia/N.Z./France, 1993)
This is the story of a mute woman who is forced into a marriage with a Brit who lives in the then-colonial New Zealand. She mostly expresses herself through her piano, which the new husband won't let her keep, but another guy from the U.K. buys it, agreeing to sell it back to her in exchange for lessons. A love triangle ensues, providing intense drama. To be honest, the story didn't captivate me until the last 20 minutes or so, but then it came together nicely. Also, the principle actors are in peak form: Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin, and especially Holly Hunter. The cinematography and color tones were excellently composed, giving a mostly depressing undercurrent to the film. Cool movie, but too much a of a "chick flick" for my taste.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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double post
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#282
The English Patient (U.S., 1996)
This film intertwines past and present in it's non-chronological telling of the story of a burn victim found in a place crash in the North African desert. Through flashbacks, you learn of a doomed love affair and espionage exploits from between 1938-45. I didn't care much for the story, but there's nothing bad I can say that went into the craft of making this film. I still didn't like it much.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#283
Il Gattopardo (Italy/France, 1963)
On a technical level, this is a great film. However, the story (a Sicilian prince politically maneuvering through the Italian Revolution) was a little dull and too slowly paced. The chromatic scheme is brilliant, the sets are painstakingly detailed, and the acting is strong. (Burt Lancaster played the lead) I became bored with the plot, and this one runs over 3 hours. Impressive score by Nino Rota. I'd say this is a film for those who truly love Italian Neo-Realism.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#284
The Searchers (U.S., 1956)
John Wayne, blah blah blah. Most overrated actor ever. He plays a guy who comes back from the Civil War to find that his niece has been abducted by Comanches. They go on a search to find her. This one's executive producer was Merian C. Cooper, a true adventurer. Director John Ford, known for his skills in capturing "Americana" (see 'Grapes of Wrath' above), did an outstanding job of portraying the scope of wilderness in the western desert. Not the worst western I've ever seen, but far from the best.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#285
Odishon (S. Korea/Japan, 1999)
This film's low production quality can easily be overlooked because it's got a cool story with an appropriate ending. In it, an aging movie producer holds a fake film audition, really "auditioning" women to be a possible wife. He picks one, charms the pants off her, and they get married. Bitch is seriously psychotic, and there's a torture sequence where she's just so evil and tender at the same time. The film briefly almost enters into the realm of absurdism, but doesn't really stick with it. Overall, a very cool movie.
"Kiri, kiri, kiri, kiri, kiri...."
Edited by Burke Dennings (11/16/12 09:08 PM)
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#286
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (U.S., 1965)
This movie really helped kick-start the “exploitation” genre, which became much more popular in the ‘70s and still influences filmmakers today, like Tarantino. Three bad ass drag racing gals kill some guy in front of his girl, take her hostage, and hide out a ranch, trying to figure out what to do with the hostage and how to rob the ranch owner. Gritty film with enough violence and sexual energy to satisfy most. Very cool movie.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#287
The Pianist (G.B./France/Germany/N.L./Poland, 2002)
This movie tells the "true" story of a Polish Jew named Spzilman and chronicles 7 years of his evasion of Nazi forces, who never did catch him. Very nice direction from Roman Polanski. I liked how the movie didn't really deal with moralities (I think most people can now agree that the Nazis weren't nice people), there were just Jews and Nazis and the struggle. Sometimes I like movies that focus on the microcosmic world of the individual during wartime, which is sometimes lost in films delivering on a grander scale. Pretty good movie.
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jammin
MN Adopted
Registered: 03/30/11
Posts: 2,844
Loc: Missourah
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
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The pianist is a great film. It's hard to watch though because it gets more and more depressing as the film progresses.
-------------------- And when I see you coming down the line With eyes wide open Somewhere in between the past and future Where you drift in time And you can see a different point of view
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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Re: Burke's 1001 Movie Project [Re: jammin]
#16841980 - 09/13/12 04:46 PM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer, but it's a triumph story too. 50/50 in a certain light.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant
Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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#288
Gone With The Wind (U.S., 1939)
I think this one is just so super famous because there really wasn’t anything like it before its release. I mean, films like ‘Birth of a Nation’ and ‘Way Down East’ run in similar themes, but this epic about the American Civil War and some very specific southerners beats all competition with its flashy splendor and enriched details. The movie gave career-defining roles to Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, and I don’t know if it’s supposed to work this way, but I found both of their characters unlikeable. Rhett Butler (Gable) is a dick, and Scarlett O’Hara (Leigh) is a buffoon. At 4 hours, this one should be watched in at least 2 sittings. Like ‘Il Gattopardo’, there’s not much to criticize about the technical details, but I just got bored. Excellent sound score. Glad I’ve seen it, but probably won’t watch it ever again.
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