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 clock_of_omens
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 clock_of_omens's's movie thread 
#21649322 - 05/07/15 01:57 PM (8 years, 11 months ago) |
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Hello all. About a year ago my friend started this thread for movie reviews, and I kept it going for a while, then I stopped. You can check out that thread for some older reviews if you feel like it. Anyway, I've been thinking about starting a new thread in this forum for a while since it is slower than the pub and also actually dedicated to art. I figured now was as good a time as any since the last movie I reviewed in the other thread was Roma by Fellini and the first movie in this thread will be Amarcord.
Feel free to comment on the movies or recommend movies or discuss movies or whatever.
Here's a list of some favorite movies. The top 4 or 5 are in order, then it's just a rough list.
Eraserhead (1977) David Lynch
3 Women (1977) Robert Altman
Drowning By Numbers (1986) Peter Greenaway
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick
Careful (1992) Guy Maddin
Blow Out (1981) Brian De Palma
Repulsion (1965) Roman Polanski
Mulholland Dr. (2001) David Lynch
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) Robert Altman
Drive (2011) Nicolas Winding Refn
The Devils (1971) Ken Russell
Suspiria (1977) Dario Argento
Aguirre: the Wrath of God (1972) Werner Herzog
Hannah and her Sisters (1986) Woody Allen
Trust (1990) Hal Hartley
Edited by clock_of_omens (05/07/15 02:28 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Amarcord (1973) is the movie Fellini made after Roma, and they have a similar structure in that they are both comprised of a series of vignettes, and they both present Fellini's view of a certain place. Roma was his view of Rome and this movie is his view of a small coastal village from his childhood as he remembers it (Amarcord means 'I remember' in a dialect spoken in northern Italy.)
This movie has a stronger narrative thread and sense of characterization than Roma. Titta and his friends roam around town obsessing over the women, particularly Gradisca, the town beautician. Titta's father is unimpressed with his escapades and berates him over dinner while his mother threatens to kill herself. There is a lawyer who roams around talking to the camera about the history of the town, a blind accordionist the townspeople are always messing with, a prostitute who slinks around, and many other characters that weave in and out of the movie. The acting is all really good and the town is very believable.
As with all Fellini movies, the cinematography and musical score are excellent. The fog and snow sequences were standouts cinematography wise, and they both have great moments involving an animal. During the fog sequence, a young boy walks through a field looking at the trees, which seem ominous in the fog. He stops with a look of fear and then there is a cut to a bull drinking out of a puddle. This scene also exemplifies another great technical aspect of this movie: the sound design. The soundtrack during this scene is almost completely silent other than ambient sounds such as the wind and a passing car. The near silence and fog drenched cinematography lend a very eerie vibe to this scene. During the snow scene, some boys from the town are having a snowball fight with Gradisca which is interrupted by a loud screeching sound. They all turn to see a large bird flying toward the town square. The scene ends on a beautiful shot of a peacock spreading it's feathers in the snow.
This is the funniest of the Fellini movies I have seen. There is some straight comedy and also some satire. A couple of his targets are fascists, who have a ridiculous parade complete with a giant floral Mussolini face, and the catholic church in a scene with a priest seemingly obsessed with whether the young men touch themselves.
Fellini mixes memory with fact and fantasy to bring us a movie that is hilarious and sad and nostalgic. Overall it is a great movie. It's probably technically better than Roma, but I personally prefer Roma. It doesn't really matter though, because they are both movies well worth watching from one of the cinema greats.
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clock_of_omens
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The Circus (1928) is a movie by Charlie Chaplin featuring his Tramp character wreaking havoc upon a circus, becoming the most popular act in the process. This is the funniest of the three Chaplin movies I've seen, the others being City Lights and Modern Times. Chaplin is great as always, and the rest of the cast members were really good as well. Some of the funniest “actors” in the movie were the various animals, a standout being a particular horse who seems to have an aversion to the Tramp. The movie is filled with many hilarious gags, and the romance angle is well done as in the other Chaplin movies. I think I would rank this one between the two others with City Lights coming out on top, mainly because of the ending. This isn't to take anything away from the ending to this one, as it is also great. Based on the three movies from him I've seen, Chaplin seems to be great at endings. The version I saw had Chaplin's redone score, which was pretty good, but I would like to see the version with the original score to compare. Overall a very funny and very good movie.
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clock_of_omens
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Woody Allen is one of my favorite directors, and I've seen all but three of his movies: To Rome with Love, Everyone Says I Love You, and Another Woman. It's been a few years since I've seen most of those movies though, and I don't remember a lot about them, so I decided to re-watch most of his movies and catch the ones I haven't seen yet while doing so.
Take the Money and Run (1969) was the first totally original movie directed by Allen. His actual first film was What's Up Tiger Lily in 1966, but he just took an existing Japanese movie and re-dubbed it. This movie is a mockumentary about a criminal named Virgil Starkwell played by Allen, and it's one of his earlier full comedies. Virgil is a terrible criminal and he gets sent to jail more than once. The movie is really funny and a really good start for one of the greatest directors ever.
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 DividedQuantum
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Bananas is one of the best comedies I've ever seen.
"What is your primary export?"
*sigh* "Dysentery."
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clock_of_omens
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Bananas is great. Looking forward to watching that, Sleeper, and Love and Death as my next Allen movies. Three of the funniest movies ever.
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clock_of_omens
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The Unknown (1927) stars Lon Chaney as an armless knife thrower in a circus. He is in love with the circus master's daughter played by Joan Crawford. There is another man in the circus who is also in love with her, but she has a fear of men touching her with their hands. The story is decent, although each new twist is kind of predictable after the last. It is highly ironic though which is pretty entertaining. Lon Chaney does a good job being menacing and sad. Joan Crawford is good too and really beautiful. The new musical score that was written for the movie after it was rediscovered is good. It lends some creepy atmosphere to the movie. Overall it's worth watching.
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clock_of_omens
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Going Clear (2015) is a documentary about Scientology and it's founder L. Ron Hubbard. It tells its story through interviews with previous members, archival footage and dramatic recreations of events. The first part of the movie has the interviewees explain how they first became involved in Scientology. The second part explores the life of LRH in an effort to understand what led him to start the religion. The third part has the interviewees explain the terrible things done by the church and what made them leave.
The movie seeks to inform people about Scientology and also to try to explain how people could believe and go along with the crazy things put forth by the religion. It does a good job with both goals. The section on LRH details the history of the ideas behind Scientology, and presents some plausible explanations as to why he came up with the ideas and why he decided to form a religion around them. The interviews with former members explain that the religion is first described as a way to better oneself and the world. Only after one has been in the religion for an extended period of time does one find out the crazy ideas behind it. At this point rationalizations and actions by the church that separate people from any dissenting opinions stop people from thinking too deeply about the situation.
The kinds of thinking people must engage in in order to believe some of these things don't apply just to Scientology but to other religions as well. As a result, the documentary doesn't just provide an expose on this particular religion, but also sheds some light on belief in general. This reach beyond the initial subject and the fact that it is a good history of the religion and it's founder provide the documentary with some lasting value beyond being a step in the take down of Scientology.
Edited by clock_of_omens (05/18/15 10:09 AM)
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DividedQuantum
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Yes, excellent synopsis. I saw it recently myself. Hubbard was surely a total charlatan, and his original goal was to start a religion for profit, as the movie exposed objectively (in testimony from his ex-wife, whom he treated horribly). What I'm curious about is whether he ever really believed in his own fabrications. I imagine at some point, considering the egomaniac that he was, he started to buy into his own hype as he saw himself as some type of prophet. What a horrendously fucked up individual he was, whew.
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clock_of_omens
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Yeah, they lay out the fact that he was in it for the money really well. He wanted a way to make money that the IRS wouldn't take, and he saw religion as a way to accomplish that. I'm not sure about that either. At one point in the movie someone brings up that question and says that they think he really believed he was doing the right thing because he stuck around and was really involved all the way through, which makes sense. He definitely had some issues.
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clock_of_omens
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Bananas (1971) is Woody Allen's second fully original movie and it is another of his early pure comedies. This one has Allen meet an activist woman whom he starts to date. She breaks up with him because there is something missing, and he decides to go on their planned trip to San Marcos by himself. The dictatorship decides to kill him in order to frame the rebels, but he is instead rescued by the rebels. He ends up as the new president and travels back to the US where he meets his previous girlfriend.
Woody Allen is typically hilarious in his role as Fielding Mellish (is there a character name that more perfectly represents the Woody persona?). Louise Lasser plays Nancy, the woman Fielding dates, and she is also really funny. There is some satire thrown in, but it's mainly based around physical and verbal comedy, and Allen is great with both. The score is ridiculous and complements the action well. The movie is hilarious.
"New Testament cigarettes. I smoke 'em. He smokes 'em."
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clock_of_omens
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To Catch a Thief (1955) is a movie by Alfred Hitchcock starring Cary Grant as an ex-jewel thief who is being blamed for a series of burglaries which are similar in style to his old burglaries, so he decides that he will catch the real thief himself. He obtains a list of people in the area who own a large amount of jewelry from an insurance agent, and charms his way into a friendship with a mother daughter pair in an effort to catch the thief in the act, soon becoming romantically involved with the daughter, played by Grace Kelly.
Cary Grant is his usual highly entertaining self. Grace Kelly is good as well and really beautiful. The plot is pretty good, although fairly light on suspense in favor of more comedy and double entendre filled conversation. In one scene Grant swims out to a raft to converse with the daughter of one of his old army friends, and Kelly swims out to meet him resulting in a barb filled exchange between the two girls punctuated by Grant's signature noises. In another scene, Kelly invites Grant to her apartment and tempts him with the diamond necklace she is wearing all while fireworks go off outside.
Probably the best aspect of the movie is the cinematography. It was filmed in VistaVision, and Hitchcock makes great use of color throughout, especially in scenes like the meeting in the market with all the flowers and the costume ball. He also made great use of colored lighting which surely influenced later italian giallo filmmakers. It's not one of Hitchcock's best movies, but it is a good one.
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clock_of_omens
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Sleeper (1973) is a sci-fi comedy by Woody Allen in which he plays Miles Monroe, a health food store owner from 1973 who gets cryogenically frozen for 200 years after complications during a routine operation. He is brought out in 2173 by scientists who need him to find out about the Aries project which is being kept secret by the totalitarian government. Along the way he becomes entangled with Luna Schlosser a poet played by Diane Keaton in her first pairing with Woody Allen.
Like Bananas, this movie has some satire but is mainly a showcase for more of Allen's verbal and physical comedy. Allen and Keaton are both hilarious, and they are great together. The cinematography in this one is good, and once again the score is zany and fits the movie well. Overall Bananas is funnier, but this movie is keen, pure keen. No, it's greater than keen, it's kugat.
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clock_of_omens
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What's up bitches, I'm back. I didn't watch any movies between Sleeper and Clueless which I watched a few days ago. That's the longest by almost two months that I've gone without watching a movie in about 4.5 years. I missed movies.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) was directed by Robert Wise and stars Michael Rennie as Klaatu, an alien who comes to Earth representing a coalition of planets who have decided that Earth people have become too dangerous with the development of nuclear weaponry. They tolerated our violence when it was just us destroying each other, but with the possibility of us bringing our nuclear weaponry to the stars, they take action. He brings with him a robot called GORT that has the power to destroy earth if necessary.
He gives an ultimatum, either the people of earth get their shit together and stop all the violence, or the coalition will have to destroy the planet. He explains that they have created a police force of robots just the like the one he brought with him. These robots ensure that the people on other planets don't engage in violence, because if they do, they are killed. He leaves them with this message and takes off back to his own planet. This obviously brings up a lot of questions concerning the morality imposing of non-violence through the threat of violence and other things, questions which the movie doesn't attempt to answer instead just posing them to the viewer. There is a whole debate to be had around that, but there is a different concern in modern times. If AI were to get away from us, the machines could reason in the same way as the coalition of planets, and they could create their own robotic police force to keep us in line. The movie hasn't lost any relevance over time, which is a testament to how good it is.
The acting from everyone in the movie is good. The characterization isn't super strong, but the focus is more on the plot and the ideas it brings forward, and these aspects are done well. The cinematography is good and lends to the atmosphere. The score by Bernard Herrmann is also really well done, the theremin sounds awesome.
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clock_of_omens
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Love and Death (1975) stars Woody Allen as Boris Grushenko. The movie opens with his narration about his upcoming execution and the rest of the movie is him looking back on his life. He starts with his childhood where he waxes nostalgic about his crazy family, including his father who owns a chunk of land he can hold in his hand on which he wants to build a house someday. Boris himself is obsessed with death and spends his childhood in existential crisis. As he grows up, he falls in love with his cousin Sonja, played by Diane Keaton. She loves his brother who loves someone else. These types of ridiculous relationship tangles pervade the movie. A series of hilarious scenes lead back to the beginning with Boris awaiting execution.
This was Allen's final pure comedy before he started to get more serious with Annie Hall, and I think it is the funniest of these early movies. Allen and Keaton are once again great together. There are too many great gags to list, but one of my favorites had Keaton at her husband's death bed where she says "I could have made love to you more often, or once even." and he says "Once would have been nice." The movie parodies Russian literature and European cinema equally. There are scenes where the characters go into ridiculous philosophical debates, which occurs probably in both. There are parodies of The Battleship Potempkin and The Seventh Seal specifically as well as Bergmanian devices in general. I'm going to need to come back to this movie after I read some of the big Russian novels so I can get those references. Anyway, the movie is hilarious.
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clock_of_omens
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It Happened One Night (1934) was directed by Frank Capra and stars Claudette Colbert as an heiress whose father does not approve of the man she has married, so he is taking her on his boat from Florida to New York to get it annulled. She doesn't want the annulment, so she jumps overboard and swims to shore where she catches a bus. There she meets Clark Gable, a newspaperman, who decides to help her evade her father's search party in exchange for her exclusive story.
Gable and Colbert are both great, and they have really good chemistry together. The dialogue is witty and hilarious, and they both deliver it really well. There are many great scenes, such as the famous hitchhiking scene and the scene where Gable fireman carries Colbert through a swamp, and she thinks he is giving her a piggy back ride. He scolds her for not knowing what a piggy back is and says, "show me a person who can piggy back, and I'll show you a human being." The supporting cast is good as well including Colbert's father and Gable's exasperated boss at the newspaper. A man they meet on the road named Shapely is a standout. The cinematography is great as well. There are a lot of scenes that take place outdoors which gives it a more modern feel. This is a funny and really good movie.
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clock_of_omens
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Annie Hall (1977) is Woody Allen's first stab at a more serious movie after his pure comedy era. The movie retains the comedy and is hilarious, but it tackles serious issues in a serious way unlike his previous movies. Woody Allen stars as Alvy Singer, a comedian who begins the movie with a monologue bemoaning his failed relationship with Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton. The rest of the movie proceeds in flashbacks.
Allen and Keaton are both great and they are great together, as in all of their movies. The characterization in this movie is a step up from his previous efforts as well. Alvy and Annie are well rounded realistic characters. Alvy is neurotic and kind of controlling. He never seems to be content in any situation, especially in his relationships with women. He always finds some way to screw things up. For example, with his first wife he keeps ranting about the JFK assassination in order to avoid sleeping with her. This is his main problem with Annie as well, as he is always trying to change her by making her go to therapy and adult education classes. She starts the movie insecure and ditzy as evidenced by their first meeting. It is a great scene in which she makes a bit of a fool of her self in an endearing way. As a result of Alvy's prodding, she grows more confident and intelligent, and she realizes that Alvy can't really have fun, which is what she most wants. Alvy is disappointed in the results of the growth that he brought about, and they both decide to break it off. Alvy realizes the mistake he made, so he flies back to LA to try to get Annie back, but she is happy with the way her life is. They meet again in New York sometime in the future, reminisce and part ways again. At the end Alvy hasn't really changed very much, but Annie has become a better person.
Every aspect of the movie is really good from the well written script to the acting by everyone involved to Gordon Willis's photography. Allen uses a lot of interesting narrative and editing tricks like split screen and breaking of the fourth wall. The narrative is a nice parallel to It Happened One Night where the building of the relationship between the leads is believable in both movies, while Annie Hall takes it further and shows a believable breaking apart. The movie is a great starting point in Allen's more serious work as a filmmaker.
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clock_of_omens
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I saw Irrational Man (2015) at the theaters. This is Woody Allen's latest movie starring Joaquin Phoenix as Abe, a philosophy professor who takes a teaching position at Braylin. He is depressed and blocked from writing and he can't get it up because he doesn't see the point of his life. While there he meets a chemistry professor played be Parker Posey and a student in one of his classes played by Emma Stone. The three leads are good in their roles.
This isn't one of Woody's best scripts. Some of the philosophical dialogue is pretty stiff, and some parts don't flow all that well. The beginning is especially choppy. The movie raises some moral questions that are good to think about, but it isn't subtle. The music was also weird in this one. It seems like he just threw in random jazz pieces wherever he felt like it. The kind of upbeat piece that plays during some parts doesn't really match the tone of what is happening on screen. Overall it's pretty good, but not one of his best.
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DividedQuantum
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The Man Who Would Be King
10/10
A John Huston movie, and truly outstanding. It takes place around the turn of the twentieth century, and starts out in British-empire India. It stars Michael Caine and Sean Connery as two con-men who travel from India to a fictional Shangri-La in the Himalayas called Kafiristan, which is so remote that no white man has ever lived to tell about it. Their plan is to mount a military campaign, take over a network of villages, become kings and then loot the country, to return to London millionaires.
Definitely worth a watch -- Caine and Connery exhibit wonderful chemistry, the writing and dialogue are top-notch, and the directing is expert. Couldn't recommend it more highly. They don't make movies like this anymore.
Also, the film is based on a Rudyard Kipling short story. Kipling is actually a character in the movie, and his ties to freemasonry are played-up quite a bit. A freemason, or anyone interested in that sort of thing, would get a kick out of that aspect of the movie.
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clock_of_omens
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John Huston is great and Michael Caine is a badass. I'll have to watch that one soon.
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clock_of_omens
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Love & Mercy (2015) is a biopic about Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. It is split into two narratives, one telling the story of Brian making Pet Sounds and his attempt to make SMiLE as well as his deteriorating mental state, and the other about his life in the mid to late eighties while he is under the control of Dr. Eugene Landy and his meeting his second wife Melinda Ledbetter.
Paul Dano plays the young Wilson. He looks and sounds a lot like Wilson and his portrayal of Brian's mental issues is believable. John Cusack plays the older Wilson, and while he doesn't really look like him, he is also really good. At this point in his life, Wilson is pretty much beat down and completely placid in regards to Landy's treatment of him, and Cusack captures it well. Paul Giamatti plays Landy and does a good job. Landy pretty much comes off as a psycho in this movie. I don't know how true to life that is, but he was definitely a terrible person to Brian. Elizabeth Banks plays Ledbetter and she is really good as well. The supporting cast are all good as well including the rest of The Beach Boys and Murray Wilson. The movie is mainly about Brian though, so it doesn't go much into them. You get a taste of how much of an asshole Murray was and how Mike Love kept bitching about Brian wanting to make more mature music.
The movie is edited so that it weaves between these two time periods, and it flows really well. There are a few spots where Beach Boys songs are played, including a few scenes of Brian in the studio with the session musicians. These scenes show Brian's methods in the mid '60s, and they are shot documentary style which gives it a true to life feel. The rest of the soundtrack is made up of some pieces by Atticus Ross that are put together from pieces of various Beach Boys songs. These are meant to kind of show the types of things Brian would hear when he was coming up these songs. They are really good in and of themselves. The movie is also shot well. They used 16mm cameras to shoot the '60s scenes to make it look correct for the period.
Overall the movie is really good whether you're a fan of The Beach Boys or not. It's also a counterpoint to the crazy artist myth. Brian's mental illness didn't help him create his art, it only fucked him up. If he had stayed well, who knows what else he would have come out with.
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DividedQuantum
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Yes! I wanted to see that, thanks for reminding me. 
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clock_of_omens
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No problem. I love The Beach Boys, so it's extra awesome.
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DividedQuantum
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Lord of War
9/10
Nicholas Cage plays global arms dealer Yuri Orlov, who rationalizes that someone else would fill his shoes if he didn't, so why not sell major munitions indiscriminately himself? He seems always to be one step ahead of INTERPOL agent Jack Valentine, played by Ethan Hawke. There are very amusing sequences in which Orlov dodges Valentine, including one in which a boat's name is painted over and changed within about three minutes, and a French flag is haphazardly put up sideways -- because they couldn't find a proper Dutch flag for their official ruse.
The film raises a lot of thought-provoking questions, and leaves one with a sense of unease as the director is sure to inform the audience that the top five arms-selling nations in the world are the US, UK, France, Russia and China -- the UN security council. The US is at the top of the list, running, in Cage's character's words, the amount of guns in one day that it would take him to sell in a year.
Excellent direction, acting, script and subject matter make this a highly recommended film. Jared Leto is fantastic in his supporting role as Orlov's ne-er-do-well brother, Vitaly. Ian Holm was also quite good.
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clock_of_omens
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I've seen that one a couple times. Nic Cage is great.
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DividedQuantum
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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
10/10
Another exquisite John Huston film, it follows the exploits of two down-and-out drifters named Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) and Curtin (Tim Holt) who are in Mexico and down on their luck. They keep taking small jobs, but have trouble because their employers keep stiffing them on their pay. Well, one day they see one such employer at the bar having a drink, and they take what is rightfully theirs by force. Dobbs decides to put a few pesos down on a lottery ticket just to get the boy selling it out of his face, and wouldn't you know it, a few weeks later he wins a few hundred pesos.
Dissatisfied with their lives, they team up with Howard (Walter Huston), and try their hand out in the Mexican wilderness at gold mining, financing the expedition with Dobbs' lottery winnings. After some false-starts, they actually begin to make a respectable income. The rest you'll have to see for yourself.
This film is, in my opinion, one of the top five movies ever made on examining the bare elements of human nature. Psychologically and philosophically, it is fascinating, and paints a picture in microcosm that could apply to the broader world in general every bit as much today as it did when it was made. Truly remarkable, it is among the top twenty movies I have ever seen, all hyperbole aside. I could not recommend it -- strike that, urge that you see it if you haven't -- more strongly.
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clock_of_omens
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Another one I haven't seen yet. 
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Jufin
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I swear I posted in this thread before. I wanted to ask what's the best film to jump into with Werner Herzog?
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22163139 - 08/30/15 12:26 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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I would say just go straight to Aguirre: the Wrath of God.
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clock_of_omens
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Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) stars Vincent Price in the sequel to The Abominable Dr. Phibes from the previous year. This movie is decent, but it is inferior to the first in every way. Price is still Price, so that's one thing going for it. However, the cinematography and music were both better in the first one. A lot of it was kind of a rehash except not done as well. The murders were once again weird, but they didn't have a theme like the first one and just all around weren't as interesting. Also, the climax is pretty much a retread , but once again not as fun or twisted. Overall I would say the first one is recommendable and this one is just alright if you really feel like you need more Dr. Phibes.
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clock_of_omens
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The Fly (1958) starts with a janitor coming upon a scientist named Andre lying dead with his head smashed in a hydraulic press and his wife Helene running away from the scene. She calls her brother in law (Vincent Price) who informs a police detective. Price and the detective go to the wife's house where she confesses to the crime but refuses to give a reason. Price deceives her into agreeing to explain her story, and the middle section of the movie is a flashback to the main story which I'm sure most people are familiar with.
Price is awesome as always. Andre and Helene are good as well. The music was used well, it wasn't overbearing like some movies from the period. It was also shot well, although there was nothing too spectacular in that department. The effects weren't Cronenberg level gross, but they weren't cheesy like they could have been. This is a fun and entertaining movie.
Edited by clock_of_omens (09/16/15 07:56 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) follows the title character, a folk singer, through about a week in his life. He couch surfs and attempts to get his musical career off the ground.
Oscar Isaac plays Llewyn Davis, and he is really good. The rest of the actors are good as well, but none of the supporting characters play that large of a role, they mostly just weave in and out as we follow Davis.
It's a Coen brother's movie, so even though it is a drama, there are hilarious moments throughout. There is a good balance between the two. The cinematography lends to the atmosphere well. The music is one of the best parts. There are many scenes where characters play entire songs, and all the actors are really good singers. Like Barton Fink, this is a good depiction of the struggling artist trying to make it on their own terms. They also both have John Goodman playing hilariously ridiculous characters.
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clock_of_omens
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Notorious (1946) stars Ingrid Bergman as a woman named Alicia whose Nazi spy father is convicted and sentenced to death. Because of this connection, she is recruited by an American spy named Devlin (Cary Grant) to spy on a group of Nazis by meeting up with one of her father's former friends Alex (Claude Rains) who used to be in love with her and basically hooking up with him. The three leads play their characters well.
The movie has the typical classic Hollywood thing where the two main characters fall in love way too quickly to be believable. It's not really a big deal, but it is kind of silly every time it happens. Once that is over with and the actual plot kicks in, it's a good ride.
There are plenty of great suspenseful sections of the movie including the whole key/party/wine cellar part which unfortunately ends with Bergman making a pretty obviously stupid decision which had she not made would have most likely held off the resulting suspicion. Still, the sequence was really well done. The last sequence is quite suspenseful as well, and the ending is really good.
The cinematography was pretty great. Some standout shots include the shot at the party which starts at the top of the staircase and zooms in on Bergman's hand holding the key. Also the shot before Bergman passes out where Alex and his mother become distorted which was pretty creepy even in this non-horror context. And just in general the lighting and framing and everything were done really well.
This is one of Hitchcock's better movies.
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clock_of_omens
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Laura (1944) has detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigating the death of Laura (Gene Tierney). Throughout his investigation, he talks to two men who were in love with Laura: Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) a newspaper columnist who helped get Laura's career going, and Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price) Laura's fiance.
All the actors are good, but the standout it Clifton Webb. He is great as a charming witty guy who slowly reveals himself to be a pompous slimy douche. You slowly get the sense that he really just looks at Laura as his property and that he has no real respect for her. He gets jealous when any other men try to see her, and he uses his column to wreck their reputations. He pretty much tells her that she is too stupid to not fall for a guy just for his looks.
The story is good. It reveals things slowly and makes sense in the end, unlike some noirs. The music is also good, especially the theme piece.
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clock_of_omens
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Days of Being Wild (1990) is about a guy named York who starts the movie hitting on a girl named Su Li Zhen. They start to date, but he is distant and when he tells her he won't marry her, she leaves. She gets depressed and hangs around his house where she meets a policeman who she strikes up a friendship with. Then York dates another girl, but is once again distant. His adoptive mother doesn't want to tell him who his real mother is because she doesn't want him to leave her.
The story kind of goes off the rails during the second part, and seemingly random stuff just starts happening. There is some nice dialogue and the acting is good, but the characters and story weren't all that compelling and nothing really comes together in the end. The two girls were kind of just crazy, and York just wasn't taking their shit. I'm not sure why exactly they were so into him either, he seemed pretty lame.
There is a lot of really good photography though. The settings are drab, but they are shot nicely and there are some pretty shots that come through the drabness. Wong Kar Wai is good with violence too. When it comes it is quick and brutal. Overall the movie was decent.
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akira_akuma
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you watch Nobody Knows yet?
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22262634 - 09/19/15 10:44 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Negative, I'd never even heard of it. I'll have to check it out soon.
Did you watch Kuroneko yet?
Edited by clock_of_omens (09/19/15 10:45 PM)
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akira_akuma
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no, i haven't. 
it looks good, it looks reminiscent of Ugetsu Monogatari.
i will have to see if i can find it online, and give it a shot.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22262665 - 09/19/15 10:50 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Hit that shit up son. It's more horror-y than Ugetsu.
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clock_of_omens
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Bad Boy Bubby (1993) stars Nicholas Hope as Bubby, a man who has been locked in a room by his mother for 35 years. She scares him into staying by telling him that the air outside is poison and that God will kill him if he leaves. The first section of the movie takes place in this room and presents the various fucked up things that happen there, e.g. incest, cat torture, meals of sugar and bread. Soon Bubby's father returns, and Bubby starts to piece things together subsequently leaving the room and getting into various misadventures in the outside world.
Nicholas Hope plays well the naivete of Bubby as well as the wonder toward all the new things in the outside world, especially music. The supporting cast is good, but this is mainly a picaresque view of Bubby. The movie was shot by several photographers, each one shooting a different scene during Bubby's adventures. I didn't really notice a large difference in shooting styles, but there was some good cinematography in the movie. The music was also good. They used some really great classical pieces, and the music from the band Bubby joins is entertaining. It's a funny movie with some nice as well as some fucked up moments.
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clock_of_omens
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Wet Hot American Summer (2001) takes place during the last day of camp in 1981. There isn't really a plot to describe, a bunch of ridiculous shit happens and it's hilarious.
The movie stars a ton of people who are famous today. A couple favorites include Paul Rudd as a total douche bag, and David Hyde Pierce as an associate professor of astrophysics. Also Elizabeth Banks is super hot. I can't even list them all, but everyone is hilarious. There isn't really much else to say, it's a funny movie.
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clock_of_omens
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Seven Chances (1925) has Buster Keaton learning that he will inherit $7,000,000 from his father if he is married by 7pm on his 27th birthday, which happens to be that day. He proceeds to ask pretty much every woman he runs across to marry him, to hilarious results. One of my favorites was when he starts walking to his car with a girl on his arm and he passes all the girls who turned him down, another woman comes and takes the girl away toward a house and puts a doll in her arms and pushes her inside. His business partner decides to put out a newspaper ad since Keaton's methods aren't working. This leads to one of the most ridiculous and hilarious chase scenes ever, taking up pretty much the entire second half of the 56 min movie. Keaton is great, especially with all the physical stuff during the chase. The score was good as well.
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clock_of_omens
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The Shiver of the Vampires (1971) has Isle and Antoine, a newly married couple, going on their honeymoon. They are going to a castle belonging to Isle's cousins. When they arrive in town, a woman named Isabelle informs them that the cousins have just died. They go to the castle anyway where they meet the servants who show them to their rooms. Vampiric high jinks ensue.
The actors are passable, but there isn't much characterization nor character development to work with. You don't watch a Jean Rollin movie for the characters though. You watch them for the atmosphere and scenery and cinematography, and these aspects are good in this movie. It takes place at a really nice castle. There are plenty of areas around the castle that make for great scenery including the cemetery. The cinematography is really good. Rollin's movies always have some really beautiful shots. These two aspects add to the atmosphere that is always present in his movies, along with his use of colored lighting, especially red, and copious amounts of fog. The music is pretty good as well. It has some sort of prog rock soundtrack which is borderline ridiculous at times, but at others really adds to the scene.
This isn't one of his best however. There is too much silly dialogue. The two cousins talk about their research into the origins of their family and other such not too interesting things. Some of his other movies have more and cooler gore to make up for it as well. This one is still pretty good though. Take a look if you like atmospheric horror movies and/or female nudity, because his movies also have plenty of that, and the main girl in this one is beautiful.
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clock_of_omens
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Through a Glass Darkly (1961) centers around a group of four people vacationing on an island. Gunnar Björnstrand plays David, the father of Karin (Harriet Andersson) and Minus (Lars Passgård). He is visiting after a long time away spent working on his latest novel. Early on he has a conversation with Karin's husband Martin (Max von Sydow), who tells him that Karin's unnamed psychological disorder is incurable. This shakes him up. The rest of the movie takes place over the next 24 hrs. as Karin's mental condition deteriorates.
There is a lot of good dialogue, and one of the best scenes involves a conversation on a boat between David and Martin. Martin tells David that he's basically a self-centered asshole, but it's nothing that David doesn't already know. David's wife was also afflicted with the same disorder that Karin has, and he couldn't deal, so he just left to work on his art. He talks about how reality can come crashing through all the little defense mechanisms people put up, which is a concept that is explored well in the movie. There are a lot of little connections in the dialogue throughout the movie which show Bergman's skills as a screenwriter.
Björnstrand and Von Sydow were both great in their roles, Björnstrand as a guy who feels guilty about the way he has treated his family and Von Sydow as the worried husband and as pretty much the sanity center of the movie. Andersson played the mental deterioration well if a bit over hysterically in parts. Passgård was good as well as a kid with a few issues of his own.
As I said, the script was good, although the ending was somewhat lame. The cinematography by Sven Nykvist was great as usual in the movies by these two. He uses lighting and shadows to great effect. The cello piece by Bach was used sparingly and really well.
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akira_akuma
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now i really wanna watch it. excellently written review. Ingmar Bergman is an awesome director, BTW, love his Wild Strawberries and Persona and Seventh Seal.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22303044 - 09/28/15 02:02 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Bergman is one of the best. I need to re-watch Wild Strawberries and Persona as it's been a long time since I saw them. The Seventh Seal is great.
Edited by clock_of_omens (09/28/15 02:02 PM)
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akira_akuma
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definitely, me too, you son of a B. you too. 
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22303059 - 09/28/15 02:06 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Haha damn, I see Bergman makes you violent.
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akira_akuma
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the classics are great, but i don't nearly dedicate enough time to watching those ingraining old-school films. 
but i did watch one of my favorite movies yesterday lol Child's Play, it was made pretty much a week before i was born i think it's just kind significant considering it's the first horror movie i ever watched and after seeing it again now i gotta say that it's actually really well done for the most part.
my high-ass review is at the Growery if you want to see it.
http://www.growery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/794829
and it's on youtube, sadly not on Netflix, the bastard sons 'a whores.
but i think i see alot of potentional in it as a relevant, though of course stock, film.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22303200 - 09/28/15 02:33 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah the classics are pretty boss. There are a lot that I need to catch up on.
It's probably been about 5 years since I watched Child's Play. I remember liking it. I remember one part where he was like slashing out from under the bed that was pretty cool. Maybe I'll watch it sometime again this October.
Also Bruce Campbell's acting isn't so bad it's good. It's so good it's amazing.
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akira_akuma
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that's intense...or just stence.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22311370 - 09/29/15 10:46 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Them! (1954) starts with cops coming across a little girl in a desert, after which they find where she came from, am abandoned car and a trailer with the side ripped off. They call in more people to investigate and send the girl off in an ambulance as she is in shock and will not speak. The original pair of cops go to a store a little way from the scene to see if the owner knows anything, and find one of his walls similarly torn open and him dead in the cellar. Things progress from there and an FBI agent and two myrmecologists join the case.
The acting is not bad, but there isn't much character to work with here. The main cop is your typical cop without much going on except hints of the feeling guilty about a dead partner trope, but even that is dropped pretty quickly. The FBI agent and daughter scientist are kind of just there. The old man scientist is essentially the cliche eccentric type.
The story is obviously implausible and ridiculous, but that is what you expect from a 50's sci-fi. The movie builds up some nice atmosphere and suspense throughout the first half. The scenes in the desert feature some nice sound design with the wind constantly blowing and strange sounds in the background. After the first nest, the movie gets bogged down in some procedural stuff that isn't too interesting, but it picks up again for the ending. The special effects were pretty good for the time. I wouldn't really say it is essential viewing unless like me you feel the need to watch a bunch of 50's sci-fi horror movies.
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akira_akuma
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would you say it was more imaginary or more like it was stenciled?
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22311398 - 09/29/15 10:53 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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I'm not sure what you are asking, but on a whim I'll say the first half was imaginary and the procedural bits were stenciled.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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I'm going to see Eraserhead in the cinema tomorrow night. Melbourne has a cool theatre that play a various collection of movies, usually offbeat ones but not always, as a double feature. The other night they had El Topo and The Holy Mountain as a double.
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akira_akuma
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Quote:
clock_of_omens said:
I'm not sure what you are asking, but on a whim I'll say the first half was imaginary and the procedural bits were stenciled.
hmmm...a real oldie. it looks pretty good.
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my3rdeye
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22312563 - 09/30/15 06:09 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Jufin said:
The other night they had El Topo and The Holy Mountain as a double.
I would kill to see that
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22312761 - 09/30/15 07:38 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Jufin said:
I'm going to see Eraserhead in the cinema tomorrow night. Melbourne has a cool theatre that play a various collection of movies, usually offbeat ones but not always, as a double feature. The other night they had El Topo and The Holy Mountain as a double.
Damn, that sounds awesome. My stupid town has no cool things. What is the other movie with Eraserhead?
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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It was The Babadook, but I just watched Eraserhead. Lots of awkward laughs in the cinema. I was a bit tired to enjoy it as much as last time, but still such a strong movie. I think it actually creeped me out a lot more this time. With Lynch, it's like he shows you a story, and you think you know it, and then he says 'no you don't know it', and then 'no you definitely don't know it', and then 'stop trying to know it because I'll twist you around and around.'
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22318143 - 10/01/15 09:38 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Haha what a weird movie to play with Eraserhead. I would think it would be creepier in the theater because you could get the full effect of the sound design. Yeah, Lynch's movies are definitely something else.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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Yeah you are right. It's really in your face and you cannot escape it. Sometimes they play films by the same director and other times films vaguely in the same style. Actually reading about the Babadook I want to see it now.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22318206 - 10/01/15 09:53 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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I haven't actually seen The Babadook yet, I just thought it was a strange pick considering the El Topo Holy Mountain pairing. I would have thought they would pick another older movie or something. I've seen a few people here say The Babadook is a good movie. I'm not really a big fan of newer horror movies most of the time though.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
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Loc: Australia
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I reckon they mix it up a bit. There was actually quite a few people there which was good to see. I think I know what you mean about new horrors. The older ones had this certain vibe and music, it was trippy and wavy, whereas the newer ones are more clinical and straight edged. I saw It Follows recently and thought it was very average.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22318380 - 10/01/15 10:26 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah, that's awesome. As long as people show up, hopefully they'll keep playing awesome old movies.
Newer horror movies definitely seem more clinical. They all seem to have the same drab flat look. Horror movies aren't really known for characterization, so you need some atmosphere, and newer horrors don't have much. Also, a lot of the time they are PG-13, so you can't have the ridiculous gore. Gore just looked better in older movies too. The ridiculous bright red and actual hand made effects were awesome. I haven't seen many newer horror movies with unique and crazy kill scenes like older ones. Also, when was the last time a horror movie had cinematography on the level of Mario Bava or Dario Argento?
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
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Loc: Australia
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Yes, the atmosphere is the key thing there. The hand made effects just add to the charm. I haven't seen any movies by those guys, but I looked them up and saw that Argento did Dawn of the Dead. I do like a good zombie flick.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22318522 - 10/01/15 10:50 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah, atmosphere is the best thing about horror movies. Argento was a co-writer on Dawn of the Dead. George Romero directed it. Suspiria is my favorite Argento. Tenebre, Opera, and Deep Red are some other awesome ones. Some Bava ones are Black Sunday, Kill Baby, Kill, and Lisa and the Devil. They both always have really great cinematography.
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DividedQuantum
Outer Head
Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,858
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Key Largo (1948)
10/10
Continuing my John Huston kick in this thread, Key Largo is a movie in which Humphrey Bogart plays returned G.I. Frank McCloud, Lauren Bacall plays a soldier comrade's wife, and Edward G. Robinson plays mob gangster Johnny Rocco. A great psychological thriller, the movie focuses on a distressing situation at the Largo Hotel. A group of mobsters, headed by Rocco, are holed up waiting to execute a deal in counterfeit currency. Unfortunately for them, a hurricane blows in, leaving them stranded. McCloud is just passing through to talk to the family of his fallen soldier comrade, and gets stuck with this bad luck.
The film is essentially an examination of human psychology, and it's very good at it. There is a scene in which Rocco gives McCloud a gun (they call it a "rod"), and says that he can shoot him, only knowing that Rocco, with his gun pointed at McCloud's stomach, will kill him, too. It's quite a standoff, and McCloud throws the gun down, exclaiming that his life isn't worth one less Johnny Rocco in the world, as he is only really interested in "me and mine." (We find out later the gun was unloaded). There are many other memorable scenes.
The acting, writing, directing, cinematography and production are superb. The music, too. A true classic. I can't recommend it highly enough. You can't go wrong with Bogart and Bacall.
P.S. I want to give major kudos to John Huston for this: There are some Indian characters in this film, and Huston doesn't treat them as simpletons or savages as some directors did -- John Ford comes to mind -- and in a movie made in 1948, I think that says a lot. He treated the Indians with compassion and respect, and they were unequivocally good guys.
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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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clock_of_omens
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I definitely need to watch some of these John Huston movies. Everything I've seen from him has been damn good. But right now it is October, so I'm pretty much going to be watching horror movies.
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caman
The Sauntering Stranger
Registered: 10/19/14
Posts: 414
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Quote:
clock_of_omens said:
Yeah, atmosphere is the best thing about horror movies. Argento was a co-writer on Dawn of the Dead. George Romero directed it. Suspiria is my favorite Argento. Tenebre, Opera, and Deep Red are some other awesome ones. Some Bava ones are Black Sunday, Kill Baby, Kill, and Lisa and the Devil. They both always have really great cinematography.
Romero, Bava & Argento are kings of the horror genre. I love Romero's dead series & Creepshow but I think Martin is my favourite of all his films. I think Phenomena is a criminally underrated film from Argento, that movie is fucking wild haha.
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In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits.- John C. Lilly
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: caman]
#22320538 - 10/01/15 06:55 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Indeed. All three are great. I haven't seen Martin yet, I need to check that one out this month sometime. And yeah, Phenomena is awesome. That chimp was a beast.
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caman
The Sauntering Stranger
Registered: 10/19/14
Posts: 414
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Haha yeah that chimp is a beast! & dude you should write a review of Martin after you check it out. I enjoy your reviews & would be interested in seeing what you think of it
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In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits.- John C. Lilly
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: caman]
#22320629 - 10/01/15 07:12 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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I will do so. Also, I just looked it up on IMDB and saw it came out in 1977. I have a theory that 1977 had the most awesome movies, so it must be good.
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caman
The Sauntering Stranger
Registered: 10/19/14
Posts: 414
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Right on, look forward to reading it! Solid theory if you ask me. 1977 sure did have a lot of incredible films & they most certainly don't make em like they used to..unfortunately.
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In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits.- John C. Lilly
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: caman] 1
#22321402 - 10/01/15 09:56 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Häxan (1922) is a sort of documentary type movie about witchcraft. The director's thesis is that misunderstandings of mental health and disease could lead to the witch hunts that took place in the past. This idea is explored through pictures with explication via intertitles, and filmed dramatizations. It goes through various ideas about witchcraft in the past. Various dramatizations of witch hunts are shown including a particularly brutal section showing torture devices. The effects aren't shown, but the set up and the thought of what will happen are enough. In the modern times section, he connects past superstitions about witchcraft to hysteria, an obviously ridiculous catch-all term. When you ignore the hysteria bit, and focus on mental health in general, he makes some good points.
The costumes and make up for the various demons and devils were well done. There were some creepy looking creatures. There were some good shots, especially during the weird masses and a couple scenes with some silhouettes in wooded areas. The classical musical pieces they used were great.
Movies like this and The Devils and Witchfinder General are some of the truest horror movies. There isn't much that is more terrifying than the depths to which human stupidity can go when superstition reigns. The ridiculous and illogical "tests" that were used to determine who the witches were are mind blowing every time. It's pure insanity. And those haircuts on the inquisitors were fucking awful, that is real horror.
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clock_of_omens
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Martin (1977) begins with the title character on a train ride during which he drugs a chick, kills her, and drinks her blood. He gets off the train and meets his crazy ass old relative Cuda and goes to live with him. Cuda believes that Martin is a vampire, as does Martin. The difference is Cuda believes in all the supernatural aspects while Martin insists that there is no magic involved.
It isn't clear whether Martin is a vampire or not, but it really doesn't matter because none of the traditional vampiric weaknesses have any effect on him, and he kills people to drink their blood all the same. It isn't likely that he is, it's most likely mental illness. This relates back to Haxan. Martin is a crazy person and his superstitious old relative can't think of anything better to do than call him Nosferatu and hang garlic around the house. It's also similar to Vampire's Kiss in which Nicolas Cage thinks he is a vampire. That movie is comedic though which this one is not.
The acting was alright, but it was pretty clear they weren't professionals. The effects were done by Tim Savini who is awesome, but this movie isn't really effects heavy. What is there is done well though. There are several flashback scenes in black and white that had some good cinematography and a cool thing where a girl keeps saying Martin and it echos in a weird way. The score wasn't anything special. Apparently the Italian version had a score by Goblin, so that would be cool to hear.
Also I have to mention the idiotic cheating chick. She can't call the cops when someone breaks in her house and injects the dude with an unknown substance? Just because "the dude isn't supposed to be there"? What a fucking moron. If I were the dude, I would have just left when Martin locked me out.
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caman
The Sauntering Stranger
Registered: 10/19/14
Posts: 414
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Nice review man 
How would you rank it amongst Romero's other films?
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In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits.- John C. Lilly
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: caman]
#22327577 - 10/03/15 10:38 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Thanks. I would put it below the dead trilogy but way above Land and Diary. I haven't seen any of his other stuff.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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I watched Dawn of the Dead last night for the first time and really enjoyed it. I noticed a lot of subtext to it. Like, out of the personalities of the 4 characters. The most skilled and competent guy, the blonde guy, got too cocky and lost his cool. Fly boy was jealous, insecure and bitter, and eventually his emotions drove him to make a bad decision which cost him his life. The big black guy was the most secure, happy and emotionally healthy. He wasn't as fundamentally skilled as the blonde guy but overall his outlook got him through. The woman was also quite mentally healthy and took initiative. You could see that her and fly boy's relationship was bad, and fly boy took the role of a lower male in the hierarchy, which is bad for survival and therefore attraction. You can see how miserable he looked as the events unfolded, unhappy with himself as a male. So really, the success personality was the black guy, and fly boy had a failure personality. The blonde guy also struck me as gay, not sure if that was a play on human survival or not. At first I thought blonde guy and black guy had a bi-sexual flirting thing going on, which they did, but i think that black guy being secure and successful went along with it for the ease of the situation.
Also, the modern western human shopping centre culture being compared to zombies was a good one.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
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Loc: Australia
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22330915 - 10/03/15 11:51 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Thanks to you guys - Suspiria, Phenomena, and Black Sunday are next on my list.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22331806 - 10/04/15 08:56 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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It's been some years since I saw Dawn, so I can't really say much about the characters. I need to watch that and Day again at some point. Have fun with those three, they're awesome.
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clock_of_omens
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Planet of the Vampires (1965) a.k.a. Terrore Nello Spazio, which obviously doesn't translate to the English title and is a better title as the movie doesn't even have anything to do with vampires, is a sci fi horror movie directed by Mario Bava. In it a pair of space ships are drawn to a planet by a signal coming from the planet. During landing, they all black out except the captain who manages to stay conscious. The others all attack each other until they are snapped out of it by the captain. They go explore the other ship where the crew wasn't so lucky, and things pretty much go south from there.
The movie has the trademark Bava atmosphere. The alien planet is composed of rocks, copious fog, and colored lights. The music is eerie along with all the electronic sounds of the technology, the wind, and the weird noises from the aliens. The cinematography isn't as beautiful as some of his other movies, but it is still good. The make-up effects were good, as was the set design especially considering his apparent use of literally two rocks over and over along with camera effects. The space suits were some ridiculous black leather number with a level of collar popping only dreamt of in the '80s. Cool movie, although not one of his best.
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clock_of_omens
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In the three years from 1971 to 1973, Sergio Martino directed five giallo movies. I watched them a few years ago, and I remember thinking they were all pretty awesome. I've been wanting to re-watch them, so I'm going to do that this month. Giallos are a mixture of murder mystery and horror, and they are probably my favorite horror sub-genre.
The first of these giallo was The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971) a.k.a. Blade of the Ripper. In it Julie played by Edwige Fenech arrives home with her diplomat husband Neil to find that there is a killer attacking young women. She runs into her old lover Jean at a party and starts having dreams and memories of the time they spent together which involved really kinky sex. Also at the party, she meets her friends cousin George, whom she starts an affair with. She starts receiving bouquets, the first from Jean and the others anonymously. She begins to suspect that Jean is the killer and that he is after her.
Sometimes the mystery portion of these movies is pretty nonsensical, but in this one it keeps it together and it plays out well. The ending gets pretty ridiculous though. Edwige Fenech is in a bunch of these movies and she is always awesome and beautiful. Her friend is another stand-out. There is some hilariously ridiculous dialogue, such as when George says to Julie "my specialty is courting ladies in the presence of their husbands" and then raises his glass to her. The movie has the awesome Italian flavor typical of the genre. The cinematography is good, although not as flashy as some other giallos. The score is awesome, especially the eerie repeating vocal theme. The kills are mostly pretty straight forward with nothing really standing out in that department either. Also, there is a scene where a pair of shoes are sticking out of a curtain making it look like there is someone behind them which must have influenced the similar scene in Dressed to Kill by Brian De Palma. The movie is better than I remember it, and I remember thinking the later ones were even better, so I'm looking forward to watching those ones as well.
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/08/15 09:51 PM)
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my3rdeye
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I am thinking of watching all the giallos on this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giallo
Favorite director so far is Umberto Lenzi for spasmo and nightmare city. Fulci though too. I just watched Martino's Torso the other day, it was quality. Early next year the remastered Suspiria/Tenabre/Phenomina are coming out I can't wait. I love watching Suspiria on LSD.
I have to watch planet of the Vampires I don't think I ever saw it. Fog and trippy lighting, sounds like it may be a good LSD flick. I was going to watch all the Bava films but after Danger: Diabolik I lost the motivation. Some day, Bava is still pretty awesome...
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: my3rdeye]
#22344229 - 10/07/15 07:27 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Haha that sounds like quite the project. Should be awesome. The only Lenzi I've seen so far is Nightmare City. I've tried to find Seven Bloodstained Orchids before because I like the title, but couldn't find it. Fulci is awesome. House by the Cemetery is probably my favorite of his. I haven't seen Danger: Diabolik yet, but Bava's probably my second favorite horror director after Argento.
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clock_of_omens
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Invaders from Mars (1953) starts with a kid named David looking through a telescope at some stellar event, and he sees a spaceship land in the sand pit behind his house. He tells his father, who goes to investigate and disappears. The mom calls the cops who go looking after the father and disappear as well. The father shows back up acting strange followed shortly thereafter by the cops also acting strange. He notices a wound on the back of his dad's neck. He goes to the police station where he notices the same type of wound on the police chief, who has him locked in a cell. Another cop calls a doctor who listens to Davids story and calls an astronomer who knows David who calls the military and then it's just a bunch of action stuff.
This one is similar to Them! in that they both have interesting first parts, but when the military gets involved, they just go downhill. All sense of character goes out the window, and you're left with essentially action scenes. This one is worse though, because the aliens aren't as interesting as the giant ants. They don't show up until late into the movie, and the costumes are pretty ridiculous. Also they use what I'm pretty sure is stock footage of tanks and troops in trucks and stuff to an unnecessary degree. It's pretty much there just to pad the run time which is only 80min to begin with. Also they use a lot of repeated shots during the climax. Then to top it off, they have a shot of David's face while he is running superimposed with random bits from the entire movie that lasts for at least 3min. This leads into the ending which was pretty bad.
The 50's color is cool looking, and there are some nice shots. Some of the sets are minimal and strange like the police station and the observatory, and this lends a weird atmosphere. The shots of the sand opening up and people disappearing in the sand pit had a creepy vibe. The movie is pretty much just borderline alright, I wouldn't really recommend it.
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clock_of_omens
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The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971) is the second giallo made by Martino in 1971, and it tops the first. In this one a woman's husband is killed in a plane explosion and she learns that she is set to inherit a million dollars from a life insurance policy. She travels to Athens to get the money, and while there meets an insurance investigator who is following her. She is also confronted by her husbands mistress, who claims that he was going to change the will and demands half of the money. Of course some murders happen as well.
As in his first giallo, this movie also keeps the mystery down to earth. There aren't really any plot elements or twists that come out of nowhere. As well as actually making sense, the plot flows well. Once again, the cinematography is awesome, and he puts even more style into this one. There are a couple of flashy camera angles and moves, and there is one scene where he uses some colored lighting to nice effect. It features more ridiculous dialogue and scenes, such as the one involving too much paprika in the food which is hilarious. The score is great. There is a nice variety of music from symphonic stuff to jazzy stuff to Goblinesque rock type stuff.
The violence in this movie is really good as well. The killer is quick and agile, and attacks out of nowhere at times. The kills are pretty brutal, especially one involving a broken glass bottle. The ending is suspenseful and well done. This is probably one of the all around best giallos.
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clock_of_omens
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Don't Deliver Us from Evil (1971) is loosely based on the same event as Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures. In it two girls at a catholic school decide that they want to worship satan, and that they enjoy doing wicked things. It is only loosely based on the real life event in that the movie mainly just takes the idea of a relationship between two young girls leading to murder.
The two lead girls are good in their roles. They seem young and innocent, but they play the evilness underneath well. They are far less likable than the leads in Heavenly Creatures, although it's hard not to like characters who have an official ceremony to denounce Jesus and pledge themselves to Satan. In Heavenly Creatures, the girls just get wrapped up in their fantasy world, and their relationship freaks people out, and their fear of being separated leads to the murder. In this one, the girls just being bad people leads to their doing awful things. The movies end differently, and the end to this one is really surprising. The movies aren't really all that similar, I'm pretty much just comparing them for the hell of it and because Heavenly Creatures is great and this movie is just good.
The score is really good, the music is pretty and contrasts with and at times complements nicely what is happening on screen. The scenes outside have a summer like glow to them that also contrasts with the wickedness of the girls. It's not really strictly a horror movie, more like a drama with some horror overtones. It's more horroresque than Heavenly Creatures though, which is a straight drama. Mostly it makes me want to watch Heavenly Creatures again at some point.
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ
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Heavenly Creatures was fucking awesome. i wanna watch it again too.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22356895 - 10/09/15 10:49 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Hell yeah it was. I'm all about that Kate Winslet life.
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ
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oh yeah, a lesbian Kate Winslet...wait, isn't she like a lesbian in everything anyways?
 stereotypes, YEAH!
PS: not to derail, but beware, there is this new movie being advertised called Pan...and wouldn't you know it, i just saw it, and it's a new Peter Pan movie UGH....like they couldn't just call it Peter Pan, no, they had to make it even more ambiguous, just Pan. i was like wtf is this shit, and my mind just got rekt with realization that this awful hunk of trash is going to be released....
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22356989 - 10/09/15 11:11 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Damn, you just put a whole new spin on Titanic. She didn't let Leo onto the raft because she lezzzed out.
Yeah, they just keep making dumb movies based on shit that has already been made into a movie a million times.
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ
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it blew my mind...Pan...like i saw it earlier and it was just a photo of this kid's face and i thought "what, another Pan's Labyrinth? is that The Great God Pan?"
nope...it was fucking PETER PAN. i facepalmed very hard.
PS: LOL with Kate it's always just a show.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22357656 - 10/10/15 04:40 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Pan 2: Revenge of the Pan
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22357684 - 10/10/15 05:14 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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good lord the Giant Pan is coming...a new Steve Jobs movie.
yeah that's right, they got Aaron Sorkin (screenwriter of Social Contract) and Danny Boyle (director of Slumdog Millionaire) to try and mass market another mass market hit about mass market mass marketer probably, what? in search of ANOTHER mass market genius?
i'd have to presume, because why do we need ANOTHER movie in this genre of Techie-dicksucking blockbusters, about JOBS AGAIN?
and with these HUGE names involved? i presume it's because the geniuses in Hollywood are looking for the next Steve Jobs to come out, file & rank, and go "yeah i can use marketing gimmicks too! look at me!"
you know, try to make it cool again....
fuckin' christ. 
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22358193 - 10/10/15 09:26 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Hollywood needs to get their shit together and start funding good movies again. Such as
Quote:
Jufin said:
Pan 2: Revenge of the Pan
I'd watch that.
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Rocket
Registered: 03/06/10
Posts: 3,653
Loc: Land of the Freaks 
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin] 1
#22359736 - 10/10/15 03:43 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Jufin said:
I'm going to see Eraserhead in the cinema tomorrow night. Melbourne has a cool theatre that play a various collection of movies, usually offbeat ones but not always, as a double feature. The other night they had El Topo and The Holy Mountain as a double.
Awesome films. Got this box set years ago.
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Rocket
Registered: 03/06/10
Posts: 3,653
Loc: Land of the Freaks
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Here's one for this month of October.  Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told is a Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi released on 24 December 1967 (USA) Writer/Director: Jack Hill Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn K. Redeker
Plot summaries from IMDb.
In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family lives with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they physically develop. The family chauffeur looks out for them and covers up their indiscretions. Trouble comes when greedy distant relatives and their lawyer arrive to dispossess the family of its home.
- Written by D.A. Kellough <dkelloug@infinet.com>
A caretaker devotes himself to three demented adults after their father's death.
- Written by Anonymous
I enjoyed seeing Sid Haig in his early career in this film as
Ralph Merrye.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Rocket] 1
#22359822 - 10/10/15 04:15 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Spider Baby is crazy. The theme song is hilarious.
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Rocket
Registered: 03/06/10
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Loc: Land of the Freaks
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Quote:
Spider Baby is crazy. The theme song is hilarious.
Spider Baby (1968) - Trailer
Edited by Rocket (10/10/15 04:32 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Rocket] 1
#22361197 - 10/10/15 10:56 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) starts off with narration on the beginning of life on earth in the seas and how creatures later crawled onto land and up to humans who study these things. A scientist finds a fossilized claw in some limestone in the Amazon and takes it back to his institute. His former student convinces his boss to put together an expedition to find the rest of the fossil, which they fail to do at the original site. They decide to go to the lagoon at the end of the tributary where they think they may find the rest of the fossil.
The actors were all good, and there were some cool characters. The boat captain was a badass, and the rivalry between the main scientist and his boss was well done. The boss was in it for the money an important find would bring to the institute while the other dude was in it for the science. The settings they used were great, it looked like they were in the jungle. There were a lot of shots underwater of people diving and swimming which were cool. There was always the sounds of animals in the jungle which added to the realism. The costume design on the creature was well done, it didn't look ridiculous like some older movies. At first they only show his claw a few times and then his shadow, building up to a full reveal. He wasn't that bad of a dude either. Sure he killed some people, but really he just wanted to steal the chick. And who could blame him.
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clock_of_omens
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It Came from Outer Space (1953) starts with an astronomer and his girl watching the stars. They see what looks to be a meteor, and they go to check it out. He finds it to be a space ship, but part of the crater caves in and covers it, so no one believes him. Alien happenings take place.
This is another good movie by Jack Arnold, who directed Creature from the Black Lagoon. Like that movie, the setting is awesome. This one takes place in the desert. This one has the same actor from Creature as well, and he is good in this one too. Once again, he has a battle going with another character, this time the sheriff who at first doesn't believe him, then has different ideas on how to handle the situation. The costume design on the aliens was really good. They didn't look humanoid at all, they were strange. The score had the 50's sci-fi theremin which always gives an eerie vibe.
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clock_of_omens
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All the Colors of the Dark (1972) is the third of Sergio Martino's horror quintet. This one isn't really a giallo though, it's more of a supernatural horror. I didn't remember how awesome it is though. I would probably put it just ahead of Scorpion's Tail. Edwige Feneche is back for this one as Jane who has been having nightmares about a man who killed her mother when she was a kid. This has been going on since she was in a car crash with her fiance Richard (George Hilton again) in which she lost her baby. Richard thinks just giving her some vitamins will help, but Jane's sister thinks she should go to a psychiatrist. She does so, and afterwards meets a new tenant in her building named Mary. Mary suggests she go to a black mass in order to cure her, and Jane decides this is a good idea.
Fenech is awesome as always. Her character is slowly going mad not being able to tell what is and is not real, and she does a good job. Plus she isn't exactly terrible to look at. This one is set in London. There are a lot of great buildings including the apartment place they live at and the castle where the mass is held. There are some great outdoor locations as well, a walkway and the castle grounds where dead leaves are scattered and blowing. The woods are hazy and the camera floats through. The cinematography as a whole is great. He really steps up the style in this one. There are all kinds of camera moves and different strange looks to shots. The dream sequences are especially bizarre. Bruno Nicolai provides another awesome score. Every aspect just comes together to add to the strangeness. I highly recommend this one.
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Rocket
Registered: 03/06/10
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Village of The Damned 1960
Something is seriously amiss in the tiny British village of Midwich. At 11 a.m. one morning, every village resident suddenly falls asleep -- and then, just as suddenly, everyone wakes up, completely unaffected by the phenomenon. Well, not completely: virtually every woman of childbearing years has become pregnant. All the babies are born on the same night, at precisely the same moment. All look the same, weigh the same, and even have the same curious cross-hatched hair and underdeveloped fingernails. Four years later, the children have all prematurely reached the age of nine or so -- and all behave in a weird, conspiratorial manner, comporting themselves more like adults than kids. Resident scientist George Sanders, one of the fathers, surmises that the bizarre manner of the children -- from their zombie-like movements to their cold, staring eyes -- is the result of radioactivity, possibly extraterrestrial in nature. One thing is certain: the children possess powers far beyond those of ordinary mortals. And they must be stopped. One of the most influential science fiction films of the 1960s, Village of the Damned was based on the equally eerie John Wyndham novel The Midwich Cuckoos. The more explicit 1995 remake was widely panned in comparison. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Children of The Dammed 1964
Two scientists (Ian Hendry and Alan Badel) discover that six genetically similar children exist around the world who possess a vastly superior intelligence. When they’re brought to London for further observation, however, all hell breaks loose, as government officials begin to speculate about how the children’s powers may be “used”, and the children react defensively by secluding themselves in an enormous church.
Edited by Rocket (10/15/15 02:22 AM)
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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I just watched Suspiria on blu ray after getting my copy in the mail from ebay. It was pretty awesome! Great pulse to it, the colours and soundtrack really gel it all together. Some really creepy imagery in that one, particularly that kid and the deformed oaf.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Rocket] 1
#22382234 - 10/15/15 07:22 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972), Martino's fourth horror movie, is really only somewhat of a giallo. It is also loosely based on The Black Cat by Poe. The movie starts at a party thrown by Oliviero (Luigi Pistilli) who talks fondly of his mother and torments his wife Irina (Anita Strindberg) and servant in front of their hippie guests. The hippies inexplicably break out in a hippie song. After the party, Oliviero continues to be a total asshole to his wife. He is a writer who hasn't written in three years and an alcoholic. When his mistress and former student is murdered, the police begin to suspect him. As a result, when his servant is murdered he decides to hide her body in the cellar. His neice Floriana (Edwige Fenech) shows up. Most of the middle of the movie consists of Oliviero being a dick, Irina freaking out about her husband and chasing away Satan the cat that used to belong to Oliviero's dead mother, and Floriana having sex with various characters. The ending picks up again and is really good.
The three leads are good. Once again, there is a great score by Bruno Nicolai. This one has a really pretty piano theme throughout. The style factor is toned down once again for this one. Overall not the best of the movies, but still worth watching, especially for the last third or so.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22382244 - 10/15/15 07:25 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Jufin said:
I just watched Suspiria on blu ray after getting my copy in the mail from ebay. It was pretty awesome! Great pulse to it, the colours and soundtrack really gel it all together. Some really creepy imagery in that one, particularly that kid and the deformed oaf.
The score is my favorite horror score, and one of my favorite scores period. Half the creepiness of the movie comes from that. The first time I watched it on Netflix it was the edited version and it was still awesome.
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clock_of_omens
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Rosemary's Baby (1968) stars Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse. They start the movie looking at an apartment in a building where in the past, as they are told by their friend, there were suspected witches and sisters who ate people. They move in and Rosemary meets a woman who says the old couple next door to the Woodhouses took her in off the street. A short time later, she is found dead on the street, seemingly having jumped from the window. They meet the old couple and soon become friends with them. Rosemary gets pregnant and the old couple decide to help her out. She follows all their advice even when things start to get weird.
Mia Farrow is good in the role, although her character is a little too naive. She follows along with what the doctor and old couple tell her to do even though she has constant pain and looks like hell. Any normal person probably would have gone to another doctor at some point in the month of pain. John Cassavetes is the actor husband who is too obsessed with his work to pay close attention to Rosemary, and his want of success gets them in trouble. Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer are good as the crazy old couple, and Gordon is especially insane. She butts into Rosemary's life constantly and rambles on non-stop. She even looks crazy with her clown make-up. The score is eerie and used sparingly to nice effect. In the end, Rosemary is left with a decision to make. Hopefully she chooses correctly. Hail Satan!
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/23/15 10:14 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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The Thing from Another World (1951) has a flying saucer landing in the ice near an arctic outpost. A team investigates and accidentally blows the ship up while trying to remove it from the ice. They see one of the aliens frozen in the ice and they remove it and bring it back to the outpost. It escapes and starts a rampage.
The movie is pretty good, although there are some ridiculous elements. One being the dude throwing the blanket on the ice block because he was freaked out by seeing the alien inside and proceeding to turn his back to the block and failing to notice it melting. Some faults are easier to talk about in comparison to the remake which does pretty much everything better. One thing is the remake does away with the pointless love subplot. Another is that the nature of the alien force is better in the remake. It is humanoid in the original, which is weird given the explanation of the alien given. The whole being able to take over bodies thing in the remake is better as well. It adds to the mystery and suspense. Then there is just the fact that the remake has awesome effects, but you can't really fault the original in that department given the time period.
One cool element in the original is the battle between the lead scientist and the others. His idea is that what we could learn from the alien is more important than their lives. His argument falls apart when you consider the alien can propagate itself easily and no one would be learning anything when the new alien army was killing everyone in the world. This is pointed out to him several times, but he ignores it. There could have been a deeper exploration of this concept.
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/23/15 03:39 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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The X from Outer Space (1967) is a totally ridiculous Japanese monster movie. A team of astronauts go on a trip to Mars to look for a UFO that caused all other trips to end in a loss of crew and ship. They apparently have made precautions this time to prevent this. Along the way one of their people gets sick, so they stop off at a moon base. They pick up a new crew member and go on their way. Near Mars they meet up with the UFO which looks like some kind of flying pastry. The UFO apparently sprays their ship with some type of spore things and they go out and take one. They bring the spore back to Earth where they decide to leave it til morning so they can party. They get a call that the spore has germinated and the creature has escaped. The creature then starts rampaging and pretty much tears Japan a new one.
This plot may seem entertaining, but the movie is pretty bad. The first half consists of the space trip leading up to the monster and the second half consists of another space trip to get a substance to stop the monster interspersed with scenes of the monster tearing shit up. The effects are pretty terrible. They are basically sub '50s level b-movie effects only in '60s anamorphic widescreen. The score is alright in some places but in others consists in some ridiculous upbeat jazzy type stuff, and the music during the monster attacks is the same thing played over and over. I can't really say I would recommend it.
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/23/15 03:40 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968) is another totally ridiculous Japanese alien movie, only this one is awesome. It starts out with the unluckiest plane ride ever. There is a suicide bomb threat, so they decide to start checking bags. They discover a bag with a rifle, and then the man it belongs to hijacks the plane. A bright light then passes over the plane and causes the engine to explode and they crash in the desert. The hijacker takes a hostage and runs away. He comes across a luminous UFO and has his body taken over by an alien life form. Alien hijacker then attacks the rest of the survivors.
The movie focuses on a group of people being attacked and doesn't veer into military involvement nonsense which is where a lot of sci-fi horror movies go wrong. The characters are pretty cool as well, though not exactly well rounded. The politician is a total piece of shit with no redeeming qualities. The pilot is pretty much the exact opposite. The rest fall in the middle, although almost everyone has their moments of being shitty, as predicted by the psychiatrist at the beginning. As in The Thing, there is a scientist who goes off the rails wanting to witness an attack in order to confirm his theories. There was enough evidence to deduce what was happening, he didn't need to see it. It's pretty hilarious how scientists act in some of these movies. There is also some out of nowhere anti-war stuff thrown in for good measure I guess. The alien life form and it's mode of taking over bodies is weird as hell and creepy. The effects are well done. The score is strange and awesome. It fits well with the weirdness on screen. The ending is also really good. Gokemidoro forever!
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/23/15 03:44 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) has two sisters coming home from a psych ward to their father and stepmother. The sisters are messed up, the father is a depressive sad sack, and the step mother is a psycho. Shit gets weird from there.
There isn't too much I can say about the movie without giving away the half-dozen twists they throw in there. Suffice to say it doesn't make any sense most of the run-time, then about three quarters of the way through they start with the twisting. In the end there are still a couple things that are wtf. There was some really nice cinematography throughout, the score was good, and there were some creepy moments. Overall, I can't really say I was a fan though.
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/23/15 03:45 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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The Devil's Backbone (2001) starts with a kid named Carlos being dropped off at an orphanage during the Spanish civil war after his father was killed. He learns right away that there is a ghost, and he tries to learn what happened. The doctor and director of the orphanage are worried about the war because the directors former husband was on the Republican side. Jacinto is a worker there who used to be one of the orphans, and he's a total piece of shit.
The kids in the movie are good, which is a plus as kids are often shitty actors. There are some well worn plot devices in the movie. The other kids pick on Carlos until he asserts himself/takes the blame for something, and they grow to accept him. The doctor is in love with the director who doesn't really reciprocate. There are some pretty trite moments as well. The movie is really more of a drama with a ghost, there aren't a whole lot of traditional horror elements. The effects on the ghost were some weird CGI thing where it has blood streaming from its head and little particles floating around it like it is powering up in Dragon Ball Z. The movie is decent. There is a point where a character drinks fetus rum, so that's something.
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clock_of_omens
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Dead & Buried (1981) takes place in a town called Potter's Bluff. The town probably isn't a place you want to visit. A photographer on a beach meets a young woman who models for him, and just as they are about to get it on, he gets attacked. The town sheriff must solve that and other murders that take place.
Some of the acting and dialogue left something to be desired. Probably the best actor and character was Jack Albertson as William G. Dobbs. He was a badass. Also there is a small Robert Englund part. The movie starts out normally enough with some murders then gets progressively more crazy as it goes on. The effects were done well, and there were some pretty gruesome kills. It was pretty good.
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/30/15 02:23 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Torso (1973) is the last of Sergio Martino's horror movie marathon. This one is a return to the full on giallo. A couple college kids get killed, and the only clue is that the killer used a black and red scarf. One chick named Dani remembers someone wearing the scarf in question but can't remember who. She gets freaked out by the murders and suspects the creep who stalks her, so her uncle suggests she go to their villa with a few friends. She does so, and things come to a head.
This movie was definitely an influence on the later slasher genre. It's about some college kids getting murdered and there is plenty of sex and nudity and some drug use, all the things that would later become cliches of the slasher. This one is almost more of a slasher than giallo itself as the mystery solution comes pretty much out of nowhere without really giving any clues, most of which were red herrings. As a result, the main draw of this movie is really the horror aspects and kills, and they are done well. The last third is especially suspenseful and brutal. There is a pretty badass fight at the end as well.
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/30/15 02:24 PM)
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Rocket
Registered: 03/06/10
Posts: 3,653
Loc: Land of the Freaks
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I recently watched 3 Women and Careful.
Been awhile since I've seen Eraserhead and Mulholland Dr.
Edited by Rocket (10/28/15 02:25 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Rocket]
#22445234 - 10/28/15 02:48 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Awww yeah, what did you think of them?
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Rocket
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I thought 3 Women was intense. For some reason I started thinking and anticipating Millie Lammoreaux was going to get attacked and her lip bitten off. Then, after the film I thought maybe it was this other film with Shelley Duvall. It was Cape Fear and Illeana Douglas... and it was her cheek. If you've seen the movie you'll remember, 'I got you now bitch!'
Careful was interesting and trippy to me. Maybe I was just stoned.  and one thing I noticed was it's from 1992 and the score or music at the beginning and throughout was similar to a film I had just recently viewed called Black Sunday from 1961.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Rocket]
#22448488 - 10/29/15 09:33 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yeah 3 Women is pretty intense. The birthing scene was especially crazy. Yeah, I saw Cape Fear, but it was a while ago, so I don't really remember it all that well. I'll have to watch it again sometime.
Haha, Careful is definitely just weird. I don't remember the music for Black Sunday. I'll have to listen to the scores or something to hear the similarity.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
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Loc: Australia
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So have you got something special planned for your Halloween movie?
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22448872 - 10/29/15 11:45 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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I'm probably going to watch Mother of Tears with my friend. It's the third movie in Argento's Three Mothers trilogy after Suspiria and Inferno. Some people say it's terrible some say it's good. We'll see.
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Rocket
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The birthing scene was what replaced what I thought was going to be Shelley Duvall's character being attacked. Same here, it was a while ago last I watched it and don't remember it. Probably why I got them mixed up. Anyway, 3 Women is worth watching again. I think the music just sounded similar to me after watching Careful then Black Sunday shortly after.
Here's Black Sunday.
In the 1600s, a high priestess of Satan is brutally murdered, but not before she swears revenge on the descendants of those who killed her. Written by, Cinematography by Mario Bava. English dubbed. Dir. Mario Bava
Mask Of Satan (Aka Black Sunday)
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Jufin
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Rocket]
#22449164 - 10/29/15 01:03 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Sweet, I'm looking forward to the review.
That theatre I mentioned that I saw Eraserhead in, is doing a movie marathon from 8pm till 3:30pm. I'm probably just going to go see The Return of the Living Dead, but here's what they're playing:
FRIGHT NIGHT
THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
FROM BEYOND
BLACULA
CORRUPTION
SWAMP THING
MOTEL HELL
KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE
TROLL 2
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22449201 - 10/29/15 01:11 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Fright Night is alright. Return of the Living Dead is awesome. I saw From Beyond but don't really remember it that well. Motel Hell is pretty good, definitely ridiculous. Killer Klowns from Outer Space is awesome, I would watch that one too. The others I haven't seen.
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clock_of_omens
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The Living Skeleton (1968) starts with a gang of pirates attacking a ship and killing everyone on board. After the credits, a woman named Saeko who lives with a priest who took her in talks about how her twin sister disappeared after going out to sea. She says that ever since childhood, they have had a psychic link. She goes scuba diving with her boyfriend, and they see a bunch of skeletons chained together by the ankles which connects back to the beginning on the ship. That night the ship appears out on the water, and she takes a row-boat out to it and sees her sister's ghost. Revenge is taken on the perpetrators of the massacre.
This is another crazy Japanese horror movie. It's less ridiculous than the others I've watched this month, but it has a lot of disparate elements thrown together. Probably the best part about it was the black and white cinematography. It is done really well as is the lighting. The story itself is decent and has some pretty crazy twists. Overall it's not bad.
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/30/15 02:25 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Genocide (1968) is another Japanese horror movie which along with The X from Outer Space, Goke and The Living Skeleton came in a criterion eclipse set called "when horror came to shochiku." This one was directed by the same guy as The X, but you can hardly tell as this one is really good while The X was definitely not. This is the best in the set followed by Goke which was awesome and then Skeleton which was decent. The only bad one was The X. Overall it's a good set.
Like Goke, this one starts out on an airplane. The US air force is transporting a hydrogen bomb over an archipelago in Japan. One of the men named Charly hears the buzzing of an insect which freaks him out as it reminds him of combat in Vietnam. While the others try to calm him, the plane runs into a giant swarm of insects which causes the engines to explode and the plane to go down. The three men escape via parachute. The whole thing is witnessed by Joji, who is on the island collecting insects for Dr. Nagumo an entomologist (while also cheating on his wife with a girl named Annabelle). The three air force men are attacked in a cave, and Charly escapes but hits his head and goes into a coma. The air force wants to find the bomb, and Nagumo wants to find out what happened to the other men as it appears they were attacked by insects.
If just the beginning sounds convoluted, wait until you watch the rest of the movie. it's borderline soap operatic at times with the plot convolutions and insanity and the melodrama especially between Joji and his wife. You even have a guy in a coma. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, soap operas can be highly entertaining. The main theme here is essentially an anti-war theme. They manage to throw in references to WWII, both the bombing of Japan as well as Nazi concentration camps, as well as Vietnam. There are tensions between the Americans and the Japanese throughout. Then of course there is the insect horror plot. All the disparate elements come together well and lead to a great ending.
Edited by clock_of_omens (10/30/15 02:27 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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I had a pretty good Halloween eve movie watching night. I watched The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for the first time. Then I re-watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) has a familiar story. Five kids go on a trip to an old house and they run into a killer. Obviously as one of the first American slasher movies, it set up a lot of the tropes that would later be used in pretty much every slasher ever. I've seen a lot of slashers, so I know all the cliches. The fact that these tropes have been used countless times since this movie doesn't negatively affect this one at all. It's still really good and effective.
What makes it effective is the great atmosphere that is built. The setting in the backwoods of Texas is not a place I would want to vacation. The set design in the house was great. That place was insane. I don't know why characters kept going there. I wouldn't be going anywhere near some random hick house in the middle of nowhere. The near-constant creepy score was great. The cinematography was really good as well. The gritty look added to the creepiness. The second half was especially intense. The dinner scene was a standout. The editing from Sally's eyes to the family just acting fucked up in general was great. The part with the grandpa and the hammer was fucked up but also uncomfortably borderline funny.
It's easy to see why this was highly influential to the coming slasher genre, and it's still one of the best.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
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Loc: Australia
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Lol, 'I don't know why characters kept going there.'
I might see this movie. I'm still not sure I really like horror movies. I like elements of them, but I don't like watching people getting fucked up, particularly if it's an innocent character. I still gotta get into Herzog though.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin] 1
#22458050 - 10/31/15 02:55 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night (1979) is Herzog's version of the Dracula story, drawing particularly from Murnau's Nosferatu. Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) is sent by his boss Renfield (Roland Topor) to the castle of Count Dracula (Klaus Kinski) in order to sell him a house in town. Harker goes along with the idea in order to get enough money to buy his wife Lucy a better house. This despite Refields's uncontrollable maniacal laughter, which seems a cause for alarm. Lucy doesn't want him to go as she has a sense of foreboding. She seems to have some sort of psychic ability. Harker goes anyway. It takes him four weeks to make it as along the way he meets some gypsies who warn him of Dracula's supernatural nature. He brushes them off as superstitious and continues on foot as no on will give him a ride or lend him a horse. He reaches the castle and has some creepy encounters with Dracula, who decides to buy the house after he sees a picture of Lucy. Dracula leaves in the night on a ship and locks Harker in the castle. Harker escapes and tries to race Dracula back home.
This is a Herzog movie, so you can be guaranteed not to get a typical horror movie. There isn't really any violence. Herzog focuses more on character and theme. Kinski's Dracula is not as usually portrayed. He is a sad lonely being. He is haunted by his immortality and lack of love. Kinski is great as usual. The make-up effects are modeled after the original Nosferatu. Dracula is pale with sunken eyes and pointed ears and nails and two sharp bat like teeth.
The cinematography in this movie is really great. This has some of the most beautiful shots in all of film. This includes Herzog's patented landscape shots. The mountains and castle loom over Harker as he makes his journey. The lighting is great as well. He uses shadow in this color movie as well as any of the black and white expressionistic movies of the 20's. It's just a great movie all around.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22458062 - 10/31/15 02:57 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Jufin said:
Lol, 'I don't know why characters kept going there.'
haha indeed. I wouldn't be visiting any houses in the middle of the woods in Texas.
Quote:
I might see this movie. I'm still not sure I really like horror movies. I like elements of them, but I don't like watching people getting fucked up, particularly if it's an innocent character. I still gotta get into Herzog though.
If you don't like that kind of thing, you probably won't like the movie. You would probably like Nosferatu as there isn't really any of the typical horror violence. Plus Herzog is just great, you should definitely get into him.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
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Yeah, I reckon he's my kind of style. Hey have you seen Spring Breakers? Or any Harmony Korine films?
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22459800 - 10/31/15 10:54 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yep, I've seen Spring Breakers, Gummo, and Julien Donkey-Boy. All were good. Julien Donkey-Boy has Herzog acting in it.
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clock_of_omens
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The Mother of Tears (2007) is the concluding entry in Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy. During some construction at a church, a coffin with an urn attached is unearthed. The priest fears supernatural elements, so he sends the urn to a museum in Rome to be looked over by the curator. As he is gone the night it arrives, two workers there open it and look at the talismans inside. The urn is then stolen by the minions of the third mother, and all hell breaks loose in Rome.
Asia Argento plays Sarah, the main character, and she's pretty good. The other actors are in the movie for varying lengths of time and are of varying quality. This one is less stylish than the other two in the trilogy, but there is quite a bit more gore. The first death is especially brutal. Argento went a little off the rails with the supernatural elements in this one. Sarah is a good witch of some sort who got powers from her mother, and this leads to some pretty silly stuff. There is also some pretty bad CGI. The score was done by Claudio Simonetti, one of the members of Goblin. It is good, but doesn't really come close to the Suspiria soundtrack. The movie is a mixed bag, but overall it is enjoyable.
Edited by clock_of_omens (11/01/15 08:48 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Harvey (1950) stars Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd, a man who is friends with an invisible 6 foot tall rabbit named Harvey. He introduces Harvey to everyone he meets which is a problem for his sister and niece who live with him. They always try to invite company over, but Elwood scares them away, so they decide to have him committed.
Jimmy Stewart is great in the role. They couldn't have gotten a better actor to play basically the nicest guy ever. He doesn't even care that his sister is terrible and wants to have him committed just because he scares away her lame ass company. Josephine Hull plays the sister, and she is good, but her character is unbearable. If I were Jimmy Stewart, I'd be kicking her out of the house. The movie is funny, but there are also some really good more serious scenes like the one in the alley outside the bar where Elwood tells how he met Harvey. I wish I were Harvey so I could hang out with Jimmy Stewart all day.
Edited by clock_of_omens (11/01/15 08:45 PM)
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lavod
Seal Whisperer
Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 5,455
Loc: Over the rainbow
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Ha! I adore harvey. And yes, i cant imagine anyone but Jimmy Stewart being able to pull off that role so well. It's a movie with a ridiculous premise, but it's also shockingly true in the way that it portrays how people can judge and treat an otherwise 'normal' and good-spirited person should (s)he possess a trait that does'nt fit into the slots ov society. Parallel to drug use and similar aberrations, and how they can completely change the way one is perceived once given light. It's an excellent movie for the time period when approached from this angle.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: lavod]
#22465768 - 11/02/15 08:23 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Indeed, and he was just sailing through not giving a shit. I also like how it was a big fuck you to psychiatry. The doctors didn't have any clue what they were doing. It was hilarious when Dr. Sanderson got all condescending to Elwood in the alley asking him if he ever knew anyone named Harvey, and he just kept saying nope.
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Jufin
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Sounds like a good movie. So clocky, your horror movie marathon has ended ey? Goddamn you watch a lot of movies!
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22466429 - 11/02/15 12:07 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yep it's over. I've watched just horror movies all October for the past 6 years. I try to watch as many movies as I can, there are  .
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Jufin
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You're like the shroomery's very own Roger Ebert.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22466580 - 11/02/15 12:54 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Haha, I don't think I watch quite as many movies as he did. Unfortunately I have stupid school and stuff.
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clock_of_omens
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Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House (1948) stars Cary Grant and Myrna Loy as the Blandings. They live in a small apartment with their two daughters. The movie starts with their morning routine, which is completely cramped. Grant decides he wants to move out of the city to a house in Connecticut. They buy an old house, but it turns out it must be torn down. They then decide to build a new one on the property, and things keep going wrong from there.
Everyone is good, especially Grant who is always entertaining. There isn't really much else to say. It's a funny movie.
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lavod
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"If you aint eatin' wham, you aint eatin' ham". Money Pit with tom hanks was clearly based on this one. I enjoy both ov them but the original is more realistic and charming.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: lavod]
#22475046 - 11/04/15 08:57 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Haha, that was hilarious. I also enjoyed this one: "This little piggy went to market. As meek and as mild as a lamb. He smiled in his tracks. When they slipped him the axe. He knew he'd turn out to be Wham!" We need more grotesque advertising. I haven't seen Money Pit yet.
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clock_of_omens
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Adam's Rib (1949) stars Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as husband and wife lawyers. In the morning paper, they see that a woman has shot her husband because he was cheating on her. Hepburn says this is a good thing because of the double standard for men and women regarding cheating. Tracy finds out he is going to be the prosecutor on the case, and he tells Hepburn. She then decides to become the woman's defender. They then battle it out in the court room.
Hepburn and Tracy are good together as usual. The story is totally ridiculous however. Hepburn makes a good point about the double standard, and I'm sure in 1949 the feminist theme was radical, but she picks a terrible case to make her point. As Spencer argues through the movie, you can't just go around shooting at your spouse. Hepburn's arguments are just ridiculous. It wouldn't be so bad if the movie were more of a farce, but it is played semi-seriously. Besides the ridiculousness of the plot, most of the comedy falls pretty flat. The best part was probably the scene where Tracy proves his point to Hepburn. This one seems more of it's time than a lot of other older movies I've seen.
Edited by clock_of_omens (11/08/15 02:08 PM)
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DividedQuantum
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Anything Else (2003)
8.5/10
Woody Allen's 2003 comedy starring Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Danny DeVito, Stockard Channing, and Allen himself, as the inimitable Dobel, this film is, in my opinion, actually one of Allen's best of the '00s. Biggs' character is an aspiring comedy writer, who wants to write a serious novel about the emptiness of existence and the terror wrought by the prospect of death. Doing his comedy, he meets another comedy writer by the name of Dobel, and they become fast friends. The relationship of Biggs' character and Dobel is the anchor of the film, and it's quite well done.
A charming movie, I really like Ricci's character, who is Biggs' character's girlfriend. She is, let us say, difficult. I imagine anyone who has ever been a male in a relationship would find this dynamic quite humorous. Allen's writing of Ricci's character is fantastic.
The character of Dobel is the best part for me, as he is witty, smart, philosophical and hilarious. At one point he advises the main character to buy a Russian assault rifle and create a survival kit (in Manhattan). One of my favorite things about this movie is Dobel's vocabulary. He uses words you've never heard anywhere else, ever. Such as tergiversate. Adventitious is one of his easier words.
Recommended.
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clock_of_omens
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I remember thinking that one was good. I need to get back to my Allen re-watches soon.
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DividedQuantum
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The African Queen (1951)
9/10
A classic written and directed by John Huston, whom I have come to regard as a truly excellent and apparently underrated director, it stars Humphrey Bogart as riverboat captain Charlie, and Katharine Hepburn as Christian Missionary Rose. After Rose's congregation in the Congo gets conscripted to fight with the colonial Germans in World War I, she and Charlie escape downriver on the African Queen, a small steamer Charlie uses for his independent business. Charlie and Rose run into impossible difficulties, but work hard to carry out their improvised mission of blowing up a German steamer downriver with homemade torpedoes, Germany being their new sworn enemy because Rose is British and Charlie is Canadian. The Congo was a German colony at that time.
The acting is legendary, the script is good, the directing is expert, and it's a fun, smart movie with a good ending. A movie of the old school, it's worth a watch as it is widely and rightly hailed as one of the greats.
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clock_of_omens
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Another Huston I have yet to see. Have you seen The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean?
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DividedQuantum
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I have not but would like to. I just started watching other John Huston movies because I liked the Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Man Who Would Be King so much. They've all been good.
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clock_of_omens
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Indeed, the few of his I've seen have all been good too, none of which are the one's you've written about. The Life and Times has Paul Newman and an awesome bear, so you really can't go wrong.
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clock_of_omens
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L'Avventura (1960) is the first in Michelangelo Antonioni's thematic trilogy along with La Notte and L'Eclisse. This one starts with Anna (Lea Massari) meeting up with her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti). They are going to pick up Anna's boyfriend Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti) as they are all going on a cruise with some friends of theirs. During the cruise, they stop at an island where Anna and Sandro have a confrontation about Sandro's being away all the time. Anna doesn't like being away from him, but at the same time wants to leave him. He takes a nap, and when he is woken up by the others wanting to leave, Anna is gone. They search for her on the island to no avail, and return to the mainland. During the subsequent searches, Claudia and Sandro start a romance.
The acting isn't bad, but as the movie is about empty characters, the characters are pretty empty. They attempt to use sex as an escape from their lives. As soon as Anna and Sandro meet, they have sex despite the fact that Anna doesn't really want to be in the relationship anymore. Basically as soon as Anna disappears, Sandro starts going after Claudia. Another character goes after a teenage painter as her husband ignores her. Men around town stop and stare to a ridiculous degree at Claudia and an actress named Gloria. The problem with all this is that watching empty people be bored isn't all that interesting. The mystery plot isn't really a plot, it's just there and then it's gone in favor of the romance angle. There is really no reason for these two characters to fall in love so quickly except to get across the point of the movie.
The movie is widely known for its visuals and visual storytelling. There is some really nice camera work and some nice shots with barren landscapes. The score is minimal and mostly consists in mysterious type music in scenes that are concerned with the disappearance. At almost two and a half hours, the movie goes on too long for how little really happens narrative wise and idea wise.
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clock_of_omens
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Ex Machina (2015) has Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a programmer at a search engine company called Bluebook, traveling to the house of the owner of the company Nathan (Oscar Isaac). There he is informed that his purpose is to determine if the AI that Nathan has created is conscious or not. This AI takes the form of Ava (Alicia Vikander) a female looking robot.
The acting by the three leads is pretty good, although like 2001, the AI is more interesting than the human characters. She is the most rounded, while Caleb and Nathan are fairly one dimensional. The main thematic concern of the movie is obviously AI. Some critics try to claim the movie deals with feminist or gender based thematics which is ridiculous. The movie isn't about men creating sex robots. Ava is just made a female so the director could use the story he wanted. The story is however a little ridiculous. I'm sure Nathan could have thought of a less manipulative and silly way to determine if his AI had consciousness. He attempts to argue for his method in one conversation with Caleb by asking what consciousness is without sexuality. This is absurd. One could easily conceive of a conscious entity sans sexuality. He then proceeds to ask if consciousness can exist without interaction, an interesting question, but kind of a non-sequitur as sexual interaction is obviously not the only type of interaction. There is also the thematic connection to Frankenstein basically inherent in AI stories, and the movie unsubtly references this when Nathan says (my paraphrase) "it's like totally Promethean man."
Some of the dialogue is stilted, especially when dealing with scientific or philosophical ideas. Names and ideas are sort of dropped into the dialogue real quick and passed over seemingly in order to tell the audience what something is - as in the conversation at the beginning wherein Nathan asks Caleb if he knows what a Turing test is, and Caleb is kind enough to provide the definition - or to attempt to please people in the know. They drop references to Wittgenstein and thought experiments and various other things and then gloss over them. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this terrible line: "If you created a conscious machine it wouldn't be the history of humankind, it would be the history of gods," which is made all the worse by Gleeson's terrible delivery of it.
The movie is shot well. There are some scenes where the power goes out featuring red lighting that are reminiscent of the scene in 2001 where Dave shuts HAL down. There are definitely other 2001 influences in the cinematography as well. The set design is really good. The house is composed of glass and stone and is located out in the middle of the woods somewhere. The score was mostly good. At times it got too precious and sappy in order to set up pre-twist believability.
The movie is good and entertaining, but could have been better if it were more interested in exploring ideas 2001 style and less interested in plot twists and machinations.
Edited by clock_of_omens (11/09/15 11:34 AM)
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DividedQuantum
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Very interesting critique. I liked the movie a lot, but your criticisms have really got me thinking, as I agree with quite a few of them. What did you think of the ending?
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clock_of_omens
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I like the movie as well, AI is just really interesting. This one does dig deeper into the ideas than something like Her which was pretty good as well. I thought the ending was good and the right one for the movie. Some critics I saw were complaining that it was predictable, but that's ridiculous. Even if it were predictable, it wouldn't matter. There is no need to get M. Night on it like one critic who in all seriousness suggested that Caleb turning out to be a robot himself and teaming up with Ava or something would have been a better ending.
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DividedQuantum
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Yeah, I didn't think it was predictable at all. Some critics are just really stupid.
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clock_of_omens
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Haha indeed.
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Jufin
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I really enjoyed that movie while watching it. It didn't really stay with me like a truly great movie does - it didn't have that strong of a vision to do that. But, it was really entertaining. I liked the story and never really thought of it as absurd. I liked the edginess and unsettling quality of the rich guy, but thought the lead guy ended up being a bit lame. Actually, that part where Caleb thinks he might be a cyborg was my favourite part. I was kinda hoping it would turn out that he is. I definitely didn't see the ending coming. One of those movies that while watching it, I would give it 5 stars. But after watching it, the next day, it became a 3.5-4 star for me.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22502466 - 11/09/15 08:13 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yeah, I wasn't saying the story as a whole was absurd, just Nathan's question of whether there could be consciousness without sexuality when there obviously could be. I probably would have chosen a different way to determine if I were a robot. Maybe one that didn't make me look hella emo.
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clock_of_omens
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My Man Godfrey (1936) starts with sisters Irene (Carole Lombard) and Cornelia (Gail Patrick) on a scavenger hunt looking for a "forgotten man," so they go to the town dump where all the homeless people stay. There they meet Godfrey (William Powell), and Cornelia offers him $5 to go with her. He berates her, and as she is backing away, she falls into an ash pile. Irene thinks this is hilarious. After Cornelia leaves and Irene talks with him, Godfrey decides he will go with her so she can beat Cornelia in the scavenger hunt. After she wins, she asks Godfrey to be the new butler at her house, and he accepts.
Everyone in the movie is good, and all the characters are hilarious. Godfrey is witty and carefree in his job as butler for this insane family. Irene falls in love with Godfrey, and when he doesn't reciprocate, she throws fits and acts depressed as if nothing matters anymore. Her family members see through her act as they recognize poses they learned in drama school. Cornelia hates Godfrey after their first meeting and conspires against him. The mother is in her own world, and her laugh is ridiculous. She has a protege named Carlo who eats non-stop and plays music badly. The father just doesn't know what to do as his family spends all their money.
The movie explores some class related themes and stuff, but mainly it's a screwball comedy, and it's hilarious. The cinematography looked nice, but the lighting was super bright and was washing out some shots. It was probably the print I had. Someday I'll buy the criterion version and watch that to compare.
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clock_of_omens
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Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) stars Gary Cooper as Longfellow Deeds, a small town guy whose uncle dies in a car crash and leaves him 20 million dollars. He travels to New York with some lawyers in order to sort out the financial stuff. Everyone in New York thinks he is some naive yokel, so they try to manipulate him into giving them money. Also a newspaper woman named Babe (Jean Arthur) gets close to Deeds by pretending to faint in front of his house after walking all day looking for a job. Using her relationship with Deeds, she writes newspaper articles making fun of him.
Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur are great in their roles. Deeds is from a small town, and he is extremely nice but not weak. He seems naive, but he is actually intelligent and a good businessman. Babe starts as a ruthless newspaper woman and with Deeds acts meek and tender and slowly reveals she really is tender. Their relationship evolution is well done and believable. Cooper and Arthur play all sides of their characters well. The supporting actors are all good too.
Like My Man Godfrey, this movie looks at some class themes, but it isn't subtle about it. Deeds wants to use his money to do some good, but all the greedy people want to get it for themselves. I found it pretty funny that the lawyer argues Deeds as a rich individual shouldn't be trying to create jobs because the government has things under control. I also have to mention what a joke psychiatry and using psychiatrists as "expert" witnesses is. The psychiatrist tries to come out with some bullshit about Deeds being manic depressive based on nothing but stories people told of him. He never even talked to Deeds. The movie is part screwball comedy and part drama, and both aspects are done well. Overall it's a good movie.
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clock_of_omens
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Autumn Sonata (1978) stars Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Bergman as Eva and Charlotte. Eva lives with her husband Viktor (Halvar Björk) and her sister Helena (Lena Nyman) who has some unnamed debilitating disease. Eva writes to her mother Charlotte and asks her to come visit as they have not seen each other in seven years. Charlotte does so, and the rest of the movie is composed mostly of their interactions with each other.
The cinematography by Sven Nykvist is great as usual. It's not as flashy as some of their other work, but very beautiful. There is minimal use of music, just a piece during the opening credits and a few spots with diegetic music. One scene in particular where Eva and Charlotte take turns playing a Chopin piece is great.
The script written by Ingmar Bergman is great. The two main characters are very well written, and the actresses take the great material and make it even better. As with many Bergman movies, there are a lot of close-ups on actors faces, and these two get across their character's emotions really well. And there are some pretty strong emotions between these characters. They basically hash out all the bad feelings they have toward each other from Eva's childhood. I don't want to say too much about it. Bergman is great, and this is one of his best. Definitely a great movie that I'll be watching again at some point as it goes deep.
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DividedQuantum
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The Mouse that Roared (1959)
8/10
A late fifties comedy starring Peter Sellers in three roles, and the lovely Jean Seberg, it takes place in the smallest country in the world -- the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, which was established in the fifteenth century by an English scholar so, as fate would have it, they speak English. Sellers plays the Grand Duchess, the Prime Minister, and a hapless local named Tully who holds the titles of local forest ranger, head field marshal and grand constable of the armed forces. The army still uses longbows and arrows as their weapon of choice.
Because of a wine-making scam, Fenwick loses its only export to the United States, which more than adequately supplies its economy. On the verge of bankruptcy, the Prime Minister realizes that Germany and Japan have made billions in defeat, because the US wants to combat communism. So, he reasons that the best way to make money would be to declare war on America, surrender immediately, and reap millions in reparations. Tully and his men land in Manhattan to commence the assault, and some very amusing things happen, as the plot twists and turns.
All in all, a very enjoyable movie -- Peter Sellers is always fantastic, and couldn't be more so here.
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clock_of_omens
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Topper (1937) has married couple George (Cary Grant) and Marion Kirby (Constance Bennett) going to New York so George can attend a board meeting at a bank. They spend the night before partying and the morning of sleeping in their car outside the bank. On the way home they have a revelation of sorts and decide they want to perform a good deed, so they conspire to break the bank owner Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) of his boring daily routine.
Cary Grant is his usual awesome self, but his role is relatively small. This is pretty much a Marion and Topper show. Young as Topper is the stand-out. He obviously doesn't like his regimented life, but he isn't used to the craziness brought on by the Kerbys. It's a funny movie, and it has some cool effects including some stop motion animation.
Edited by clock_of_omens (11/15/15 11:05 AM)
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clock_of_omens
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Born Yesterday (1950) has junk yard owner Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) coming to DC with his fiance Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday) in order to buy a congressman. Harry is worried that Billie is too stupid to be around DC people, so he hires Paul Verrall (William Holden), a reporter who interviewed him, to teach her stuff.
I wasn't sure about Holliday toward the beginning, and her voice is ridiculous. But it grows on you, and she turns out to be good. At the beginning, she doesn't know much and doesn't really care. Holden instructs her in history and government, and she gains knowledge and becomes a badass. She realizes what is going on with her fiance and decides she doesn't want any part of it. The movie is not so subtly about corruption and stuff, but it doesn't beat you over the head with it. It's funny, and Billie is a good character. If only more people would try to educate themselves like her.
Edited by clock_of_omens (11/15/15 11:07 AM)
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lavod
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread *DELETED* [Re: clock_of_omens]
#22526947 - 11/15/15 10:17 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Post deleted by lavodReason for deletion: .
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: lavod]
#22527015 - 11/15/15 10:39 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Yeah, I was just trying to not say that they die. Grant's role is lesser though. Pretty much every scene with Grant has Bennett, but a good portion in the middle just has Bennet and Young.
Screwball comedies are always silly, but like you say this one is sillier with the fantasy ghost aspect. The other story stuff I agree with you on.
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lavod
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: lavod]
#22527486 - 11/15/15 01:10 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Oops, sorry.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: lavod]
#22528037 - 11/15/15 03:36 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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haha, it doesn't matter. I probably don't really need to worry about spoilers on 80 year old movies. Plus it's not about what happens in art, it's about how it happens.
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clock_of_omens
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Ninotchka (1939) starts with three soviet Russians going to Paris in order to sell some jewels taken from the old Russian aristocracy. There they meet Leon (Melvyn Douglas) who works for Duchess Swana (Ina Claire) the Russian aristocrat to whom the jewels belonged. Leon attempts to get the jewels back from the Russians by showing them the good points of Capitalist society. As a result of their debauchery, Russia sends Ninotchka (Greta Garbo) in order to make sure the jewelry sale goes through. In the process she meets Leon and falls in love with him.
Garbo is good as the soviet who starts off entirely unemotional and logical but slowly becomes enthralled with Parisian culture. Douglas is good as well as the charming and suave guy who is able to break through Ninotchka's cold exterior. The three Russian dudes are stand-outs as well. They try every way possible to rationalize their western extravagances, and it's hilarious. The movie is obviously highly unfavorable toward soviet society as it is portrayed as bland and regimented compared to the fun-lovingness and freedom Paris is portrayed as having. Overall it's funny and not too political.
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clock_of_omens
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All About Eve (1950) starts at an award ceremony at which Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) is receiving an award for her acting on Broadway. Just as she is about to take the statue, the movie freezes and narration by Karen Richards (Celeste Holm) takes us back to where this story began. Eve is standing outside the theater where Margo Channing (Bette Davis) is acting in a play. She tells Karen that she has seen every performance, so Karen invites her in to meet Margo. Eve gives a sob story about how she came to be there, and Margo invites her to live with her and help her out. Eve slowly manipulates her way onto the stage.
The first obvious thing to mention about this movie is the great screenplay. All the characters are interesting, and the dialogue is highly entertaining. There are many hilarious and quotable lines. All the actors are good, but there are a few standouts. Anne Baxter is great as Eve. She appears to be innocent and naïve, but as the movie goes on, her manipulative side shows more and more. She plays both sides of the character really well. Bette Davis plays Channing as a paranoiac drama queen who has obviously been an actor for too long. One scene where she gets drunk at a party she is especially good in. She pretty much has something mean to say about everyone there. Finally there is George Sanders as Addison DeWitt. He is slick and witty and just as manipulative as Eve. His standout scene is his confrontation with Eve in New Haven.
The movie is largely about the quest for fame and what people will do to get it. The entire movie points to this. According to Wikipedia, there are some critics who try to claim the movie is about homosexuality and patriarchal ideas on relationships. I don’t know what is going on with these people. There is really no evidence in the movie that either Eve or Addison, the two claimed homosexual characters, are anything but heterosexual. Eve insinuates herself into Margo’s life not because she is in love with her, but because she wants so badly to be an actress, and this is the way she can think to reach her goals as she is manipulative and basically a sociopath. There is also the fact that she goes after multiple male characters. Addison is seen lusting after females throughout the movie. I have no idea where critics are getting that he is gay. Some people just want to read their pet theories into every movie they possibly can.
The cinematography is nothing special, the best shot in the movie is the ending with Phoebe reflected in the mirror. The score is really good. It is minimal and used really well in the right places. As I said, the best thing about it is the script, which is great. There should be more movies based around great dialogue these days.
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DividedQuantum
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2010 (1984)
8/10
Obviously this film is not in the same class as its predecessor, 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it is very good in its own right and makes no claims to be in the same league with it. It is based on the Arthur C. Clarke sequel to the previous book/movie combo., and is very well adapted. Dr. Heywood Floyd, the unlikable bureaucrat from 2001, is the now likable protagonist in this film. Clarke rehabilitated him, and he gets a chance to go on a Russian mission to find out what happened to his doomed expedition nine years earlier. The purpose of the mission is to investigate the monolith orbiting Jupiter where Dave Bowman met his mysterious fate, and to revive the Discovery ship to see what they can find out from its data logs.
There is quite a lot to it, but to condense, Bowman reappears from his journey across the galaxy (which was the end of the first movie), and is involved with his overlords' plans to turn Jupiter into a star to support life on Jupiter's moon Europa. He also makes an appearance on Earth. Along the way, HAL 9000 is reactivated, and this time is quite cooperative and reliable. Interestingly, his odd behavior is explained as being due to conflicting orders -- he was programmed to be as honest and truthful to humans as possible, but Washington made him keep the moon monolith a secret from Poole and Bowman in 2001, and he slowly went crazy due to the paranoia he was unwittingly faced with. The book and movie give interesting perspective on other elements of 2001, as well.
All in all, definitely worth seeing -- even better in combination with the book. Competently written and directed, and Roy Scheider is fantastic.
Edited by DividedQuantum (11/19/15 03:16 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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I saw that one in the same class we watched 2001 in. It was alright. Like you said, not in the same league as 2001. It doesn't go as deep into philosophical questions, and it tries to explain a lot of the stuff that was mysterious in 2001. The ambiguity and plethora of possible interpretations were part of why 2001 is so great.
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DividedQuantum
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Quote:
clock_of_omens said:
The ambiguity and plethora of possible interpretations were part of why 2001 is so great.
This is true.
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clock_of_omens
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Rebecca (1940) has Joan Fontaine, whose character isn't named, and Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter meeting and falling in love and getting married. When they move back to Olivier's mansion Manderley, Fontaine is haunted by the memory of Oliviers first wife Rebecca. All her stuff is still around, and the housekeeper let's Fontaine know her contempt, as she was basically in love with Rebecca.
The first part of the movie is sort of a romantic comedy with sinister undertones. When we first meet Olivier, he is standing on the edge of a cliff, and Fontaine comes upon the scene. Later on they meet again as the woman Fontaine works for knows Olivier. Olivier and Fontaine start to see each other and fall in love, but it is clear Olivier is haunted by the memory of his former wife. This idea of being haunted by memories is a big theme in the movie. It is sprinkled throughout the first part and comes to dominate the second part. At Manderley, Fontaine cannot escape Rebecca. Everyone she meets talks about her fondly. They always mention how beautiful she was as if she was in another league than Fontaine which I found funny because Fontaine was super beautiful. The movie builds up some really nice atmosphere in this part. It almost feels like a ghost story but with no actual ghosts. It loses steam during the third part after the boat is discovered. It basically turns into a procedural type thriller and doesn't have the atmosphere of the second part.
The cinematography and score were good. There was this one cool edit where the housekeeper walks in front of a curtained window and it freeze frames and a shot of waves crashing fades in over it. The first two thirds are top tier Hitchcock, but the last third brings it down a bit.
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clock_of_omens
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The Shop Around the Corner (1940) stars Jimmy Stewart as Alfred Kralik, a man who works at a store owned by Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan). He is looking for a woman of substance, so he starts sending letters back and forth with one who put an ad in the paper looking for a man with substance. One day a woman named Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) comes into the shop asking for a job. Steward says there are no openings, but she proves her worth by selling an item no one would want. There is friction between them from the beginning despite never really getting to know each other.
Stewart and Sullavan are good together. They slowly grow to realize that they were wrong about their first impressions of each other. Frank Morgan is good as the owner of the store. He is on edge because of his wife who berates him for money and who he thinks is cheating on him. He assumes Stewart is the one sleeping with her as he's the only employee he has invited to his house, so he fires him, another example of judging people before you really know what the facts are. The rest of the cast are good as well. The movie is funny, but there are some darker elements as well which set it apart from most screwball comedies of the era.
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clock_of_omens
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Fata Morgana (1971) is a documentary type movie by Werner Herzog shot in the Sahara desert. It's split into three parts: creation, paradise, and the golden age. The first part has a woman narrating a creation myth over mainly landscape images. Shots with humans start to show up around the time of the creation of animals in the myth. The second and third part have weird, borderline non-sensical narration written by Herzog. Brief interviews get peppered into these final two parts, one with a scientist studying a lizard in the desert and one with a guy who has sea turtles in a pool. The music is great as in most Herzog movies. This one has some classical pieces by Mozart and Handel as well as some progressive rock type pieces and a few songs by Leonard Cohen. There isn't really a narrative of any kind; it's just strange stuff out in the desert. If you ever watched any Herzog and thought there should be an entire movie mainly of his landscape shots, this is the movie for you. That's not a bad thing either, the cinematography is great.
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clock_of_omens
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Gilda (1946) starts with Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) hustling some sailors in dice. After he leaves, he is saved from being robbed by Ballin Mundson (George Macready), who tells him about a casino. Farrell goes there and cheats at blackjack and is brought in to see the boss who happens to be Ballin. Farrell talks Ballin into hiring him. Ballin goes on vacation and comes back with a new wife Gilda (Rita Hayworth). It becomes clear that Johnny and Gilda know each other.
Ford and Hayworth are good together, but their love-hate relationship is taken to melodramatic levels. The whole movie is pretty melodramatic really, including Ballin as the villain. The main draw is Hayworth. Her hair flip entrance is awesome. Then her line "Johnny is such a hard name to remember and so easy to forget," is hilarious. Her song and dance numbers are pretty ridiculous though. Apparently they had someone else dub her singing voice, which was weird because the singing wasn't very good. Overall it's a decent movie.
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clock_of_omens
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Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) is a documentary by Werner Herzog about Dieter Dengler, a German born American Navy pilot who was shot down in Vietnam, the story Herzog would later use in Rescue Dawn. Dengler was captured in Loas and turned over to the Vietcong. He managed to escape and was rescued. Dengler is a great subject. He tells stories really well and just gives off a weird energy that you wouldn't expect from someone who went through the stuff he did.
The movie starts with Dengler recounting his childhood fascination with flying and how he came to be an American Navy pilot. Herzog then takes him to the Vietnam region to recount his escape. Herzog used local people as soldiers and had Dengler relive some of the experiences. At one point he is telling a tale about his ring being stolen by a Vietnamese man in a village. After leaving the village, he tells his captors about what happened, and they go back. One of the captors finds the man and chops off his finger to get the ring back for Dengler. As he is telling the story, he is using one of the extras as a prop. He puts his arm around the extra and tells him not to worry as it is only a movie. Dengler's story is interspersed with a few historical things such as part of a training video for soldiers with Herzog giving hilarious commentary. The score is great as usual. It has this really strange chanting type music in some of the jungle scenes. It's a great documentary.
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ
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erm, have you seen Double Indemnity by any chance, yet, Omen?
if not, it'd be highly recommend, if you wanna an old school film that...ain't a melodrama, but not a totally gritty either.
it's awesome. please Werner Herzog is awesome too.
Encounters at the End of the World was amazeballs. and Grizzly Man too. lol, i've only seen his like more popular films, what a square. i am really interested when i see this thread's reviews though, keep it up guys. (now i'm review the review thread -- meme's galore)
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22569321 - 11/24/15 05:15 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
akira_akuma said:
erm, have you seen Double Indemnity by any chance, yet, Omen?
if not, it'd be highly recommend, if you wanna an old school film that...ain't a melodrama, but not a totally gritty either.
Yeah, but it's been a long time, and I don't really remember it. It's one I plan on re-watching at some point.
Quote:
it's awesome. please Werner Herzog is awesome too.
Encounters at the End of the World was amazeballs. and Grizzly Man too. lol, i've only seen his like more popular films, what a square. i am really interested when i see this thread's reviews though, keep it up guys. (now i'm review the review thread -- meme's galore)
Herzog is the man. You need to watch them all son.
Getting meta with it.
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akira_akuma
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i know, but he's stacked. i will get to them all eventually.
i watched Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson today; it was amazing. vivid, nostalgic, great cinematography and score, and it was great writing; and real fun.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#22570908 - 11/24/15 11:07 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Haha for sure. Dude has made a bunch of movies. I've seen all but a few of his fiction movies and several of his docs at this point, and they've all been at least really good.
Moonrise Kingdom is awesome.
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Jufin
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I've got Stroszek downloaded and am yet to watch it. Harmony Korine said in an interview that's his favourite. Which came out in 1977, same as Eraserhead, and...
Stalker (1977)
I saw this a couple of nights ago at the cinema I frequent these days. It was a Monday night, showing this reasonably obscure film, and the line of people was out the door and around the corner! I honestly thought there'd be 50 people there at most. The whole cinema was packed out, and it's quite large. Anyway, the film has a great concept, and I really enjoyed the first half, but it gets slower and slower, and it didn't help that I was deathly tired by that time of the night as I get up at 3am every day. While it has a story that sucks you in, it starts to bog down in philosophical drivel that I didn't care about. It has a lot of things I enjoyed, but ultimately is too slow for me, with not enough reward to make it worthwhile.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22570984 - 11/24/15 11:37 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Stroszek is great. 1977 was an awesome year for movies. I haven't seen Stalker. The only Tarkovsky I've seen is Ivan's Childhood. I've been meaning to watch more of his stuff at some point. Sounds like that theater is awesome though.
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Jufin
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Yeah, they really have an interesting selection of movies. I might go and see Plan 9 from Outer Space in a few weeks for a laugh.
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Jufin
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22571382 - 11/25/15 04:18 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#22571927 - 11/25/15 09:05 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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I haven't seen Plan 9, but Glen or Glenda by Ed Wood was highly entertaining. Damn that theater looks insane.
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clock_of_omens
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Almost Famous (2000) stars Patrick Fugit as William Miller, a kid hired by rolling stone to accompany a band on tour in order to write a story about them. The main talent in the band is Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), the lead guitarist. The singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) knows Russell is the talent and is jealous of him. Also along for the ride is Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) and her fellow "Band Aides."
Fugit is pretty good in the main role, and his character is decent. One ridiculous thing though is his love for Penny Lane. The initial attraction obviously makes sense, but since he is supposed to be so smart one would think he would move on after she blows him off for Russell multiple times. What is the continued attraction based on? She isn't very interesting. Her character basically consists in leading William on and being in love with Russell. Philip Seymour Hoffman is always cool, but he doesn't have much to do here. He's just there to provide sage advice to William from time to time. William's mother is basically a caricature of the overbearing mother. None of the characters are treated all that deeply. The music is obviously good and is probably the best part of the movie. It's also nice that they avoided a cliche ending. Either dude getting with Penny would have been ridiculous. It's a decent movie.
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clock_of_omens
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Manhattan (1979) starts with shots of New York and Isaac’s (Woody Allen) narration of the first chapter of his novel. After this beginning, we get a mealtime conversation between Isaac, his 17-year-old girlfriend Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), Isaac’s friend Yale (Michael Murphy), and his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). When they have a moment alone, Yale tells Isaac that he is having an affair with a woman named Mary (Diane Keaton). Later Isaac and Tracy are at an art show, and they run into Yale and Mary. Isaac is initially put off by Mary’s pretentiousness. She likes and dislikes various art pieces for no discernable reason, and goes on a diatribe about the films of Bergman while praising Isaacs television writing – which Isaac himself cannot stand and is ashamed of. However, Isaac and Mary meet again later and go on a walk through New York, during which Isaac realizes that he likes her despite her ridiculousness. Yale breaks it off with Mary as he feels guilty for cheating. Isaac leaves Tracy because he feels she is too young for him and because he has started seeing Mary. After a brief period, Mary and Yale rekindle things and Isaac attempts to get back with Tracy.
This movie explores some of the same ideas as Annie Hall, but is an improvement. The characters and plot are deeper, and it is just as funny. Isaac is capricious and selfish. He quits his television writing job on a whim even though he has no immediate prospects. He has his novel in the works, but judging by his opening narration, it isn’t going to be great. He leads Tracy on while all the time telling her that she should be leaving him to be with people her own age. He then finally breaks it off with her when he has what he takes to be a better prospect in Mary. Mary is just plain ridiculous. She is a pseudo-intellectual who goes off on silly rants. She constantly complains about her relationship with Yale because he is married, but won’t leave him and won’t be a homewrecker. Yale is pretty selfish himself. When he finally leaves Mary, he tells Isaac that he should go after her. Isaac does, but after the two couples get together a couple times, Yale is calling Mary trying to get back with her. Tracy is caught up with Isaac because of her naivete. At the end, Isaac tells Tracy not to go to London – despite earlier encouraging her to go – because he doesn’t want her to lose that something that he likes about her. It seems he is talking about naivete because that’s really the only reason she would be with him.
The cinematography by Gordon Willis is insanely good. The composition and lighting are beautiful in basically every shot. A couple standout bits are the famous bridge shot and the sequence in the planetarium. The music by Gershwin is used to great effect as well.
Edited by clock_of_omens (11/28/15 01:44 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Bottle Rocket (1996) stars Luke and Owen Wilson as Anthony and Dignan. Anthony starts the movie in a mental hospital, and Dignan comes to break him out, unaware that it is a voluntary hospital. Anthony goes along with Dignan’s scheme as he doesn’t have the heart to tell his friend the truth. Dignan tells Anthony of his plan to impress a local crime boss by pulling off some practice heists. They recruit Bob (Robert Musgrave) as their getaway driver. After they rob a bookstore, they go on the run to lay low for a while during which time they get into a fight and separate. Anthony gets some real jobs while Dignan meets with Abe (James Caan) the crime boss and starts working for his lawn care company. Dignan and Anthony meet up and Dignan talks him into one more big heist.
The Wilson brothers are good, and their characters have a nice dynamic. Dignan is a silly motherfucker with ridiculous plans. Anthony just goes along with them to appease his friend. You get the feeling that they have been friends since childhood, and Anthony is used to indulging in Dignan’s whims. The movie doesn’t really flesh out any of the rest of the main characters, especially Inez, the woman Anthony falls in love with while the gang are on the run. The whole motel love sub-plot was pretty much just filler. It’s a funny movie and a good debut for Wes Anderson.
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clock_of_omens
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North by Northwest (1959) features Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, an ad man who is mistaken for an intelligence agent named George Kaplan and kidnapped by some henchmen of Phillip Vandamm (James Mason). They take him back to a house where Vandamm questions him. Thornhill obviously denies that he is Kaplan, and Vandamm forces him to drink a bunch of bourbon. They then try to push him off a cliff in his car, but Thornhill regains consciousness and drives away and is caught by the police. Once he is released, he tries to find Vandamm, but cannot as Vandamm used a fake name belonging to a UN official. Thornhill goes to the UN building to talk to the man he thinks kidnapped him, but the UN official is stabbed in the back during the conversation and Thornhill for some reason grabs the knife as the man is falling. He then goes on the run from the police and Vandamm. Along the way he meets Eve (Eva Marie Saint).
Grant is a badass as usual. He goes through all the shit thrown at him taking it all in stride and being suave and witty while he’s at it. James Mason and Martin Landau are good as the villain and his side kick. I’m not sure what was going on with the casting of Thornhill’s mom. She looked barely older than Grant. The plot is totally ridiculous and doesn’t make sense at times, but it doesn’t really matter as this is basically just an action thriller. There is plenty going on to move the movie along at a nice pace.
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clock_of_omens
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Burden of Dreams (1982) is a documentary by Les Blank filmed on location in the Amazon with Herzog during the making of Fitzcarraldo. It details the many troubles Herzog went through in an effort to make the movie. He had to deal with the local politics of the natives as he used them for labor and as actors in the movie. There were also attacks on the natives by other hostile tribes. He also had to deal with the logistics of his decision to actually pull a ship over land as the character in his movie does. Among these things were also uncooperative weather, Kinski’s craziness, and the logistics of getting supplies to the middle of the Amazon. All this after he had to completely start the movie over – having already shot 40% - after his original stars left: Jason Robards got sick and Mick Jagger had music commitments. He re-cast Robard's role with Kinski and dropped Jagger's character. This was kind of fortuitous though because if the original footage shown in the doc is any indication, the movie wouldn’t have been as good as it is. The doc also explores various aspects of the culture of the natives. It’s a great look at Herzog and the events surrounding the making of his great movie.
Also included on the criterion DVD is Blank's short doc Werner Herzog Eats his Shoe wherein Herzog does just that. He had told Errol Morris that he would eat his shoe if Morris was able to finish his first movie. Morris finished Gates of Heaven, so Herzog cooked his shoe in duckfat with lots of garlic and hot sauce and ate it live at the premier.
Herzog is basically the biggest badass in cinema history.
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lavod
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Quote:
clock_of_omens said:
Herzog is basically the biggest badass in cinema history.
He had to be to put up with Kinski! That cat was cray.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: lavod]
#22596835 - 11/30/15 10:19 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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No doubt. My Best Fiend is another great doc by Herzog that goes into Kinski's craziness.
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DividedQuantum
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The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
8/10
A somewhat lesser known western from the early seventies, this movie was not what I was expecting. It seems to market itself as something of a comedy, but it wasn't funny. In fact, if anything it was rather dark. Paul Newman plays an outlaw who kills his way into taking over a small town in the middle of West Texas, and establishes his own settlement there as a judge that is judge, jury and executioner truly. I can't even remember how many hangings there are in the movie, and neither the hanging nor the shooting is glamorized at all.
Over time, with more people and more money, the town becomes bigger and more established. A classic bustling western town. Judge Bean truly believes this successful township was founded on principles of law, order, justice, liberty -- and so forth. Director Huston makes no bones about how such things are gotten in the first place. I find this film strange in a way I can't quite put my finger on -- perhaps it's just that it was nothing like I was expecting. I will say that it is, without question, a unique film, and I do recommend it. But be ready for a darker, more gritty experience than you might otherwise expect.
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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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clock_of_omens
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It is dark, but I thought it was pretty funny too. Justice is the handmaiden of the law. The law is the handmaiden of justice. Works both ways. Any scene with the bear was awesome.
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DividedQuantum
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Yeah, the bear definitely stole the show.
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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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clock_of_omens
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You Can't Take It with You (1938) stars James Stewart as Tony Kirby, the son of a rich banker/businessman Anthony P. Kirby (Edward Arnold). Tony falls in love with his secretary Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur). Kirby Sr. is planning on buying a large area of shops around a competitors factory in order to put him out of business, but one guy Martin Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) won't sell his house. It turns out Vanderhof is Alice's grandfather, so while Kirby is trying to buy his house, Alice and Tony are trying to get their families to approve of their marriage. Her family is cool with it, but his mom and dad are snobs who think they're better than Alice and her family.
Arthur and Stewart are good as the main couple. She's worried about what his family will think of her's, but he doesn't care what they think. She comes to realize that her family is better than his when they all get sent to court after illegal fireworks go off at Alice's house and Tony's mom won't even admit that they were present because of the engagement. Barrymore is good as the grandpa who only cares about letting people at his house do whatever they want. He has a great speech to Kirby Sr. while they are in jail wherein he basically destroys him. Arnold is good too. After the speech, he comes to realize Vanderhof is right, and he becomes conflicted. Tony's mom remains a total bitch until the end though. All the minor characters in Vanderhof's house were good too, they were ridiculous. It's a funny movie, probably one of the lightest of Capra's. He doesn't really insert anything very dark into this one.
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clock_of_omens
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Ball of Fire (1941) has Gary Cooper as Bertram Potts as the sort of leader of a group of eight professors who live together while they are writing an encyclopedia. After a delivery man comes into the house and none of the professors can understand his slang, Potts (the English expert) goes out to research slang. He meets various people and invites hem back to his house for research, including a performer at a nightclub named Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). The police are trying to find Sugarpuss to make her testify against her mobster boyfriend Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews). She decides to go hide out at Potts's house. While there she charms the hermetic professors and Potts falls in love with her. Lilac decides to use this fact to smuggle Sugarpuss out so that he can marry her so she can't testify against him.
Gary Cooper is entertaining as always. He is out of touch with the rest of the world because of his being cooped up for his project. The same goes for the rest of the professors. Their interactions with outside people are hilarious. A favorite was Professor Robinson (Tully Marshall). His voice was ridiculous. Barbara Stanwyck is great as well, it's easy to see why they were so charmed by her. The cinematography is by Gregg Toland, and I'm assuming was done directly after Citizen Kane, because he uses some of the same deep focus techniques here. It's a well done screwball comedy with good dialogue and hilarious characters.
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clock_of_omens
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Meet John Doe (1941) is another movie starring Stanwyck and Cooper from the same year as Ball of Fire. This time Stanwyck plays Ann Mitchell, a newspaper woman who is fired from her job after a the paper gets a new editor. She decides as her last column to write a letter ostensibly from "John Doe" claiming he will commit suicide on Christmas Eve in protest against the shitty state of society. The letter attracts attention, and Mitchell convinces the newspaper to run with it by hiring a fake John Doe. They get John Willoughby (Cooper) for the job. A movement starts up following Doe based largely around a disdain for politicians. The publisher of the newspaper Norton (Edward Arnold), himself a politician, decides to use the John Doe movement to get himself elected. Willoughby finds out and threatens to tell the truth, but Norton beats him to it, and the movement falls apart. Willoughby decides to take drastic action as he has come to believe in the movement himself.
Cooper is good once again. He plays the same kind of good guy caught up in a ridiculous situation role that he played in BoF and Mr. Deeds. Stanwyck is great as well. She plays a totally different character from BoF. Less the sexy type and more the down to earth type, and she does both well. This one is probably the darkest of Capra's I've seen. It gets pretty heavy at the end. It's also probably the most overtly political. Politicians are portrayed as basically scum who will latch on to anything they possibly can to get elected. Norton tries to take over the John Doe movement even though it's all about the people and not politics.
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clock_of_omens
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Five Element Ninjas (1982) starts with two rival schools having a battle. One school defeats all the other schools people including a samurai they hired to fight. The samurai gives the leader of the school the name of a ninja just before he kills himself. The leader of the school hires the ninja and his followers to challenge the other school again. Fighters from the other school go up against the five groups of ninjas, each based on an element, and they get their asses kicked. The main ninja decides to take out the rest of the school, and only one dude survives. He goes to learn ninjitsu from a man he met once. He, along with the man's other students, then go to fight the ninjas.
The movie has the basic rival schools plot that many martial arts movies have, but puts a spin on it with the crazy themed ninjas. Each group fights based on their element. For example, the earth element ninjas hide in the ground and pop up at their enemies. It's pretty ridiculous and awesome. There are some cool sets/locations used for the different ninja groups as well. The fights are well done and there are cool weapons and stuff. It's also ridiculously gory. One dude gets ripped in half, and there is a crazy scene involving intestines. It's an entertaining movie.
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
Registered: 04/10/14
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Last seen: 5 hours, 36 minutes
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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) stars Liu Chia-Hui as San Te. He starts the movie as a student who learns that his teacher is part of a political resistance. He and his fellow students decide to help when they see one of the resistance fighters get killed. San Te starts to use his fathers food shipping business to transport things for the resistance. The government finds out and destroys the business and kills the students. San Te manages to escape and makes it to the Shaolin temple where he wants to learn kung fu. After 7 years, he masters the martial arts and goes to take revenge.
Liu Chia-Hui is good in the main role. He starts off cocky when he arrives at the temple, but slowly comes to realize he has to work to master the martial arts. The temple teaches kung fu through a series of 35 chambers, and San Te is able to master them faster than any other student. One especially ridiculous chamber involved the students going through an area with sandbags hanging down where they had to headbutt the bags on the way. There appeared to be some serious brain damage taking place. Of course when he finishes all the chambers, he becomes a bad ass and dominates his enemies. There fighting was good, especially San Te's three sectional staff fights. Its not the best martial arts movie I've seen, but it is a good one.
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
Registered: 04/10/14
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I’m sure everyone knows the story for It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). George Baily (James Stewart) is going to kill himself on Christmas Eve and his guardian angel is sent to save him after being filled in on his life up to that point, this filling in composing the first two thirds of the movie.
Jimmy Stewart is great, this is probably his best performance I’ve seen. He’s an upbeat guy who is slowly beaten down by life. You can really see the anguish and bitterness at each moment he is forced to choose between his own dreams and the good of the town. Lionel Barrymore is great as potter. He’s one of the most vindictive and terrible characters I’ve seen, but not in an over the top way. His brand of awfulness is very believable. Donna Reed is good as Mary Bailey as well. Her scenes with Stewart in which they fall in love are well done. The rest of the cast is good as well. Each minor character gets little scenes that add to the realism of the town. The is Capra’s best exploration of his recurring theme of the common man against the rich corporate class; Bailey and the townspeople help each other out against Potter. It is more subtly done than some of his other movies. The part showing how he has greatly affected other people’s lives was a nice addition that really brought the point home. Also, it’s pretty dark and risqué in places considering its status as a family movie. The scene where Mary loses her robe and her “he’s making violent love to me mother” line later in her house were especially surprising. It’s all around a great movie.
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
Registered: 04/10/14
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My Dinner with Andre (1981) starts with Wallace Shawn, playing a version of himself, walking down the street with his narration telling us he is a playwright who is going to meet a former play director friend of his named Andre Gregory, playing a version of himself, for dinner. He arrives at the restaurant and meets Andre and they are seated. The conversation starts with Andre telling of his recent spiritual adventures, which Wallace is fascinated by. Wallace then poses the question of why one would need to go all around the world in order to feel alive. He feels that reality is pretty uniform and there is enough life to enjoy sitting at home or in the cigar shop next door. They debate this for a while and the conversation roams around to other things. They part ways and Wallace takes a taxi ride home with a new appreciation for various places around his New York neighborhood.
Obviously since this movie is based entirely around a conversation, the script is extremely important, and this is a great one. The conversation is believable. These are the kinds of things two intelligent art people would say. Some things with depth and some things that are pretty much nonsense. The camera work is less important since it's just close-ups and medium two shots. There is one great camera moment where it zooms in close to Andre's face as he is telling a story of being buried alive on Halloween night. This really adds to the moment. There isn't much music either. At the end they use a great Satie piano piece that fits the mood really well. Shawn and Gregory basically play themselves, but that probably isn't as easy as it seems, and they are both great. One would maybe think that a two hour movie about a conversation wouldn't be all that interesting, but it is and it makes for a great movie.
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clock_of_omens
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Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) stars James Cagney as criminal Rocky Sullivan and Pat O'Brien as priest Jerry Connolly. The movie starts with both boys as teenagers going to steal some pens from a train. When they are spotted, they attempt to run, but Jerry falls on the train tracks. Rocky saves him, but is caught as a result. After he spends his teens and young adulthood in and out of jail, he returns to his home town to find Jerry as a priest who is trying to keep the local boys out of trouble. The boys look up to Rocky as a criminal, so he and Jerry clash.
This clashing makes up a large part of the movie. Jerry thinks that the main influence in someone becoming a criminal is their environment, and the only reason he escaped that life was because Rocky told him not to turn himself in. It’s clear in the movie though that although this is partly true, Rocky chose the criminal life. Jerry wants to stop the kids from becoming criminal, so he decides to try to take down the whole organization. He tells Rocky that he will take him down as well if he has to. Rocky’s partners Jim Frazier (Humphrey Bogart) and Mac Keefer (George Bancroft) decide to kill Jerry, but Rocky saves his life once again.
Cagney and O’Brien are both good. Their characters and relationship are believable. The supporting cast are mostly good as well, but their characters are less fleshed out. Ann Sheridan’s character was especially ridiculous. Her husband was a criminal and was killed in a police shootout. At one point she says to Cagney that the same fate is likely for most criminals yet she proceeds to fall in love with Cagney anyway. The script is well written, but the ending is a little ridiculous. Overall it’s a good movie.
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clock_of_omens
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Imitation of Life (1959) stars Lana Turner as Lora Meredith who, while one day looking for her daughter on the beach, meets Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) and her daughter. Annie tells Lora that she has come to town in order to find a better life as where she was from the fact that she was black stopped her from getting work. Lora lets Annie and her kid stay the night and they end up staying permanently. Also met at the beach was Steve Archer (John Gavin). He and Lora start dating but when she gets a job acting through an agent who earlier made a pass at her, Steve tries to forbid her from taking it. She starts her career and they part ways. A decade passes and she has become a successful actress on Broadway. Then more stuff happens.
This is a straight up melodrama, so the acting is pretty much all over the top. The characters are fairly flat as well. It’s thoroughly unsubtle in its thematics. Lora is highly ambitious in her pursuit of acting, but this pursuit has a negative effect on her family and love life. Her daughter Susie (Sandra Dee) feels neglected by her mother, and Steve apparently can’t handle a woman with a career. Race issues are explored through Annie and her daughter Sarah Jean (Susan Kohner). Sarah Jean can easily pass as white and wants to. She acts shittily toward her mother as a result. The screenplay is nothing special. It’s easy to tell how the various plot lines will play out. The cinematography and use of color are good as in Douglas Sirk’s other ‘50s melodramas. There is also a cool title sequence with diamonds falling down the screen against a black backdrop with the titles in a cool looking font all with the pretty good title song playing. The movie isn’t very good by any metric. However it is entertaining if you like melodramas/soap operas, and who doesn’t?
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clock_of_omens
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Leave Her to Heaven (1945) has Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) and Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) meeting on a train which they are both taking to New Mexico. He notices her because she is reading his novel and because she is Gene Tierney while she notices him because he looks like her late father. They happen to be going to the same ranch, both invited by his attorney. There they fall in love, and she decides to break off her current engagement. Her fiancé Russell Quinton (Vincent Price) arrives, and she tells him that she is getting married to Richard, surprising both men. Richard goes along with it and they wed. Her jealous side starts to come out.
The movie is pretty ridiculous and Tierney’s character is over the top, but she plays it well. There are a few times you can see the craziness and coldness of her character in her eyes. The rest of the cast are alright, but they are mostly just there. Vincent Price is always fun, but he’s only there at the beginning and for the court scene, which is a silly scene. For one, it would seem Price shouldn’t be the prosecutor as there is a clear conflict of interest and his love based line of questioning isn’t very courtly. It’s also ridiculous the way the case turns completely around when Richard decides to produce the information he does.
The cinematography is well done. There are a lot of great locations including the New Mexican desert and the cabin location. The Technicolor is flashy and cool. It’s a fun movie and definitely worth watching for Ellen’s emergent craziness. Although one would think her family would notice something festering somewhere along the way.
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clock_of_omens
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Kiss Me Deadly (1955) starts with a woman running down a road unsuccessfully trying to get a car to stop. Finally she stands in the middle of the road and forces Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) off to the side. She gets in and he learns she escaped from a mental institution and people are looking for her. They get stopped and taken and she is killed and he is knocked out. They are put back in his car and pushed off a cliff, but he manages to survive and decides to investigate.
Ralph Meeker is good as the sadistic and morally bankrupt private detective. He apparently specializes in divorce cases where he plays each party against the other by basically pimping out his secretary to get information on the husband and getting it himself on the wives. He also has no problem breaking into people’s houses and causing them pain to get information. The case he falls into here leads him to a box sought after by the cops and the criminals who stole it. What is in the box is ridiculous and leads to the most insane ending to a noir I’ve seen yet. The movie is worth watching for that alone, but it’s a good ride until then as well.
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Rocket
Registered: 03/06/10
Posts: 3,653
Loc: Land of the Freaks
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I just want to say if I hadn't or again that you and your movie thread rocks. Thanks for putting it together. I've enjoyed watching your teastes in film, and there's quite a selection here. You seem to really like Golden Age/post Golden Age.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Rocket]
#22836517 - 01/28/16 10:28 PM (8 years, 2 months ago) |
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Thanks.  I need to get back to it at some point, but I've been hella busy with school. Yeah, I like movies from any era, but I've been watching a lot of older ones because for the like four and a half years my friend and I watched a movie almost everyday, we barely watched older ones because he almost never wanted to. He's lame like that.
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clock_of_omens
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Have you ever seen a movie with scenes pushing the upper bounds of soft-core porno between a woman and a weird wolf-like creature? I have, now that I watched The Beast (1975). The movie is basically about an arranged marriage between some chick and some dude. There are some sinister vibes coming from the dudes dad who really want's the marriage to happen. The chick and her aunt come to the man's castle for the wedding and some ridiculous shit happens.
The movie is really in no way good. The story is silly and has a lot of pointless asides; there isn't anything deeper going on. There is no characterization or character development, unless you count the main chick's weird apparent bestiality fetish. Most of the last third of the movie drops any pretense of lame storytelling and consists of the chick's dreams, flower masturbation, and naked roaming. There is a whole bunch of female nudity, but it is unpleasantly offset by full beast nudity. The cinematography is pretty good at times, but not good enough to elevate the movie in any way. The best part was the soundtrack consisting of a couple harpsichord pieces. I can't recall any other movie with harpsichord, and it's one of my favorite instruments. That's mostly a personal thing though. The music doesn't add anything to the movie, it just gives you something nice to listen to as you're subjected to beastly ejaculations.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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Sounds like a warped version of Beauty and the Beast...
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
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Last seen: 5 hours, 36 minutes
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#23182204 - 05/02/16 10:21 PM (7 years, 11 months ago) |
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Sometimes it's said that it's a version of Beauty and the Beast, but the only similarity is really the presence of a beast. It's actually based partially on some other book I guess. It's pretty much just fully ridiculous though.
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my3rdeye
Registered: 08/10/12
Posts: 4,354
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 2 years, 11 months
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Boro is a fucking weird director. Goto Island of Love is pretty good also his short films. I haven't seen Blanch or Docteur Jekyll et Miss Osborne but I heard they are good.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: my3rdeye]
#23182950 - 05/03/16 05:36 AM (7 years, 11 months ago) |
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#23183703 - 05/03/16 10:26 AM (7 years, 11 months ago) |
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Yeah, based on this one movie of his I've seen, he seems like a pretty weird dude.
Lol at the black box on the beast dick. That trailer is misleading. It makes it seem like some weird horror movie or something, but really there is just a couple more dream sequences like that and the rest is just the lame story and naked chicks. Dat harpsichord though.
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
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The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974) is a short documentary by Werner Herzog wherein he follows Walter Steiner, a ski-jumper, as he seeks to set the world record for farthest jump. It takes place mainly during practice leading up to a competition in Planica as well as the competition itself. Many jumps are shown, successful and failed, as well as interviews with Steiner about his thoughts on the sport and the competition. Herzog himself also appears in a kind of reportorial mode, apparently at the demand of the TV station he made the movie for.
This is another of Herzog's character study movies. He gets into the psychology of Steiner through interviews regarding the dangers of the sport, the need to not talk of fear but instead respect for conditions, and a story of a pet raven Steiner had as a boy. After a serious fall, Steiner is shown contemplating whether to jump again so soon, and finally does so because if he didn't, he would potentially "develop too much respect" for the sport. Aside from that aspect, the filmed jumps and falls, some slowed down significantly, are great. As usual with Herzog, the music is great and complements the footage.
I read a truly ridiculous review by Jonathan Rosenbaum that I have to mention. He claims Herzog is "Acclaimed for the strangeness of his various depictions and/or expressions of ‘madness’ and ‘obsession’, he is a director who approaches these topics with an abandon that invariably seems checked by his manner of presenting them." Yes, Herzog obviously often makes movie about characters who are crazy or obsessed or both, but he doesn't just present them for gawking as if he's the head of a roadside freak show. He explores the characters deeply. Rosenbaum carries on with pretentious nonsense such as "Perhaps because the transparency of his language is itself so mundane that any amount of ‘crazed’ material can pass through this medium without threatening the spectator’s safe, voyeuristic distance from it, he has managed to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable realms of ‘humanism’ and self-centered fanaticism without ever forcing the contradictions between these positions into an audience’s consciousness." Aside from being unnecessarily vague and pseudo-academic, this is the kind of bullshit that is often leveled at Kubrick when he is accused of being cold, distant, and emotionless. This is total nonsense when it comes to Kubrick, and especially regarding Herzog, who is not distant from his characters at all, even as their specific actions and psychology may be distant from the viewers. He explores the characters deeply and brings out a deeper relevance. He goes on to make a ridiculous comparison to some obscure Howard Hawks movie which apparently "exploits the death-defying nihilism of car racers" as if this has any relevance. Steiner is not at all nihilistic. He claims it is a failure of Herzog that his movies don't "implicate the viewer" in whatever is going on, as if this has anything to do with the quality of an artwork. Implication of the viewer in whatever is happening on screen implies some kind of political or ethical goal for art, which is nonsense. Art is communication of ideas.
He continually compares Steiner to Aguirre and Kaspar Hauser, which is silly as the three characters are all different from each other. Aguirre is truly crazy and obsessed, Hauser is neither, merely not "normal" as a result of his confinement, while Steiner definitely isn't crazy and not any more obsessed than any other world class athlete. Rosenbaum is merely stripping away all the complexities of the characters, the stuff of actual characterization, and presenting their perceived similarities, which are tenuous. He does so in order to make another ridiculous comparison between these characters and Herzog himself. He claims that these films show the director as some kind of "holy fool" through their presentation. The director himself in this movie and Aguirre and Hauser "standing in for the director" in their respective movies, all produce some sort of "romantic mystification about what the filmmaker is actually doing." This is all just more pretentious nonsense. Rosenbaum apparently can't deal with whats actually happening in the movie, so he has to make shit up. I'd like to say he wipes out just like one of the ski-jumpers, but he never actually manages to soar. He's more akin to the one who crashes on the inrun and merely slides off the ramp to the ground.
Anyway, the movie is good, but doesn't quite reach the level of Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Herzog's other documentary of a man who dreams of flight. This is mainly due to the length, as Dieter is able to go deeper into it's character. But don't be discouraged, a lower tier Herzog is still better than most.
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Jufin
Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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Sounds interesting. I tried to get into Herzog recently, I watched Stroszek and Aguirre. I couldn't get into it. It's like, I just don't... get it.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: Jufin]
#23193478 - 05/05/16 07:38 PM (7 years, 11 months ago) |
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That ski-jumping one is only 45 mins and is pretty straight forward. You could try out some of his docs like that one or Little Dieter Needs to Fly or Encounters at the End of the World.
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clock_of_omens
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The White Sheik (1952) was Federico Fellini's first movie as a solo director. It features a newlywed couple, Ivan and Wanda Cavalli, who travel to Rome for their honeymoon where the Ivan wants Wanda to meet his family. He has the day planned with sightseeing, family meals, and a meeting with the pope. She sneaks off to meet The White Sheik, the star of a photo-comic who she had exchanged letters with under the name Passionate Dolly. In order to meet him, she travels out of the city to some beach where they are shooting for the day, and she ends up playing a part in the photo-comic. Meanwhile, Ivan spends the day lying to his family and attempting to keep them from his hotel room so they won't see Wanda is gone, all in effort to protect his family name.
The acting by the main couple is good. Ivan spends the whole movie with a hilariously bemused look on his face while he wonders what happened to his wife and lies to his family. Wanda is in a reverie. Her romantic ideas are dashed though when she finds out The White Sheiks true nature. He starts out acting romantic and suave. He tells her a story of his wife stealing him away from the woman he truly loved using a magic concoction while they are sailing on a boat stolen from the set. When they return to shore, his wife is there, and he reveals himself as a manipulative loser who grovels to his wife. Giulietta Masina makes an appearance as Cabiria, the role she would later play in Nights of Cabiria. She attempts to cheer Ivan as he is crying by a fountain about Wanda having been missing all day. She is great in the short scene. The ending is good, though a bit too Hollywood. There's nothing too special going on in the cinematography deparment. The score by Fellini regular Nino Rota is really good. It's a good and funny movie, not one of Fellini's best, but as with Herzog, lower tier Fellini is still must watch.
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clock_of_omens
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Lessons of Darkness (1992) is another short Herzog sort of documentary. This one is in the Fata Morgana mode, basically sans story. It was shot in the oil fields of Kuwait after the Gulf war. Oil is everywhere, geysering out of the ground, some of those geysers on fire. There are landscape type shots as well as scenes with workers trying to extinguish the fires and stop the gushing oil. Herzog narrates, saying there has been a war lasting a few hours, not giving any specifics on what war. He also reads bible passages and muses on the motivations of the workers. The whole thing is presented from a detached perspective, obviously not contextualized to any specific situations.
This brings me to Jonathan Rosenbaum, who once again whiffs on Herzog in his "review" of this movie. It's hard to call it that as it's literally two sentences. His first sentence gives a summary while also complaining about how Herzog "treats war as abstractly as CNN" as if this is a bad thing. His second sentence is truly ridiculous on several levels. Brace yourself. "This 1992 documentary may be the closest contemporary equivalent to Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, both aesthetically and morally; I found it disgusting, but if you’re able to forget about humanity as readily as Herzog there are loads of pretty pictures to contemplate." Yep, he pulls out a comparison to Triumph of the Will. Now, I haven't seen that movie, but I would be willing to bet it's not aesthetically similar to this one. Even more asinine is the moral comparison. The only thing disgusting here is Rosenbaum comparing this movie to fucking Nazi propaganda. It doesn't even make sense. Is he trying to say that Herzog's movie is pro-war propaganda? That's idiotic. Even if this comparison were apt in any potential universe, it's still an asinine thing to say. Just because Triumph of the Will is Nazi propaganda doesn't mean it can't also be great art. It likely isn't as the message is probably more prominent than any actual artistic qualities, but that's beside the point and also conjecture since I haven't seen the movie. The point is, the quality of a work of art isn't contingent on whatever message that work may be trying to get across. Rosenbaum's misplaced moral outrage is more important to him than actual art. Bizarrely, he claims elsewhere that Fata Morgana is one of his favorite Herzog movies, further showing that he's not actually reviewing Lessons of Darkness, instead bitching that the movie isn't what he wishes it were.
As for what actually is on screen, the cinematography and music are great. There's a great sequence where workers replace the cap on one of the wells which ends with them finally stopping the leak and just walking away and shaking hands. The movie isn't really a documentary as it's not about anything in particular. It's images and music and Herzog's voice. It's damn good.
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ
Registered: 08/28/09
Posts: 82,455
Loc: Onypeirophóros
Last seen: 4 years, 3 months
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believe it or not, i watched Jaws for the first time today.
yeah, ain't ever watched it forward to back before -- it was awesome. perfect, pacing, shooting, acting, it was awesome, and encapsulates basically a whole genre of survival horror, but it's not campy really in any way. when the attacks happen, it almost nearly comes across as docu footage because it's so chaotic and the attack is so well paced, that you feel like your a part of the scene (this due to the pacing and good shots of the actors; putting you in the scene in a very realistic fashion), but it's not that it's jerky or anything (that'd make it campy), it's just very serious...it comes across very serious...and random seeming [the targets i mean; which is realistic] -- although there was some irrealism and the shock moment with the tooth...LOL...but i can't fault it because it's the age of cheap scares...but the movie didn't play it up more than just once, for a jump scare. other than that. a perfect movie. the end was brilliant, and i never experienced it before, either, in full.
now i may watch Land Before Time because it's Land Before Time and it's on Netflix now.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma]
#23227803 - 05/14/16 10:08 PM (7 years, 10 months ago) |
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I actually haven't seen Jaws in full either. I watched part of it when I was a kid, but my mom turned it off. Land Before Time is the shit.
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DividedQuantum
Outer Head
Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,858
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No, I am not clock_of_omens and no, this is not my thread. But I felt this belonged here.
The Third Man (1949)
10/10
This movie is extraordinary. Wonderful directing, script and plot, production, acting, cinematography. It takes place in a time roughly contemporaneous with its release year, 1949, in bombed-out, crumbled Vienna, Austria. Holly Martins, played by Joseph Cotten (of Citizen Kane fame), arrives in Vienna because his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) has lined up a job for him, only to find out that Lime has died in a mysterious car accident. He investigates unofficially, and gets different details of the "accident" from different people. Clearly, something is amiss with the whole thing. He continues in the quest to figure out the truth, and nearly gets killed for his efforts. The movie takes a sharp turn about halfway through, and revelations come to light. We learn more about what Lime has been doing in Vienna, why the authorities are so interested in him, and I'm afraid that's as far as I can go without giving too much away. A true noir thriller, brilliant in every respect. It is an old film, done in black and white, in a style that is both reminiscent of the time period but also innovative and avant-garde. Suffice it to say that they don't make movies like this anymore, unfortunately.
Heartily recommended.
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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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clock_of_omens
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It's been a few years since I saw that one, and I don't really remember it. It's one that I plan to re-watch soon. There are theories that Welles was largely responsible for the movie as it is much more like his other work than Reed's other work. I haven't seen anything else by Reed, so cannot really say one way or the other.
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clock_of_omens
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As for me, I've been getting back to my Woody Allen re-watches. This past week I watched Interiors(great), The Purple Rose of Cairo(really good), Hannah and Her Sisters(damn great), Radio Days(really good), and September(good).
I think the last one I mentioned in here was Manhattan, so the other ones I've watched since then are Stardust Memories(really great), A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy(good), Zelig(really good), and Broadway Danny Rose(really good).
Also I re-watched Shame by Steve McQueen which is great. A few weeks ago, I watched The Thin Red Line which is also great. Those are the recent highlights.
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DividedQuantum
Outer Head
Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,858
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Yeah, I've seen a lot of those. I especially liked Hannah and Her Sisters. Woody Allen is one of a kind.
Speaking of Steve McQueen, I watched The Thomas Crown Affair recently, and it's definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it. One of the coolest opening sequences I've seen, and Norman Jewison is in my opinion a terrific director, and underrated. In the Heat of the Night was amazing, too.
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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
Registered: 04/10/14
Posts: 4,097
Last seen: 5 hours, 36 minutes
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Woody Allen is one of the all time greats.
The only Steve McQueen the actor movie I've seen is Bullitt. I've seen Steve McQueen the director's three movies, and they are all great. Shame is probably the best.
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ
Registered: 08/28/09
Posts: 82,455
Loc: Onypeirophóros
Last seen: 4 years, 3 months
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Shame was excellent. but so was TYAS.
and Hunger was probably my favortite.
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
Registered: 04/10/14
Posts: 4,097
Last seen: 5 hours, 36 minutes
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 Re: clock_of_omens's's movie thread [Re: akira_akuma] 1
#23878940 - 11/29/16 05:15 PM (7 years, 4 months ago) |
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Indeed, they're all excellent. It's been a while since I watched Hunger. That's in my re-watch log as well.
He needs to make another movie already. Although the one that wiki and imdb says is his next project sounds a little on the ridiculous side. He should be able to make it work though.
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DividedQuantum
Outer Head
Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,858
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Quote:
clock_of_omens said:
Woody Allen is one of the all time greats.
The only Steve McQueen the actor movie I've seen is Bullitt. I've seen Steve McQueen the director's three movies, and they are all great. Shame is probably the best.
haha I didn't know there were two. I'll have to look into the director's work; the actor was a total badass.
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Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them
Registered: 04/10/14
Posts: 4,097
Last seen: 5 hours, 36 minutes
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Indeed. He only has three movies so far, but he's one of the best going right now. His most known is Twelve Years a Slave.
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