The 12th Hall of Fame

Tools    





I haven't read the novel. I'm pretty sure if you read the novel first, you won't like the movie.

On the other hand if you watch the movie first then you already know how the story ends so that might ruin the book for you...That's assuming you don't already know what happens in the story. If you do know what happens watch the movie first. If not read the book first.



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Just finished The Grand Budapest Hotel, review's gonna be up sometime today or tomorrow. Went through the other reviews but had to go looking for Cosmics cause the link in the second post just gives you a link to the picture she used in the review. Until it's fixed you can find it at the bottom of page 26.
__________________
Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?



Accidentally linking to the picture is oddly appropriate though, considering the visuals were the one thing I liked about the film haha.

While I haven't posted there in awhile, I've actually been keeping direct links to all my HoF write-ups in my review thread. So if you wanted to read one I had written but can't find it, you can get a quick link there.



Just fixed the Grand Budapest review link from Cosmic. After all these years, I only learned how to link to a post about a week into this tournament thanks to CR. It's a small link to hit with my thumb on the iPhone, so I must've had at least half of it on the pic.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Have any of you read the novel? I am interested in reading it, and I wanted to know if reading it before watching the movie would be the right choice.
I have very rarely enjoyed a movie as much as I could when I had read the book first; you can probably do a little research on the book vs movie (regarding the author's feelings about the movie being true to his novel) and then make a decision from there.
__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes
~Mr Minio




Never Let Me Go

Visually this is one of the most beautifully filmed movies I've seen.

The art direction, the lighting and the scenes are a thing of beauty. The cinematography is carefully controlled, sublime. The color pallet of the film is soft pastels, filmed in a soft diffusion, which gives the film an almost ethereal feeling.

The movie reminds me of paintings by the 19th century French Impressionist, it's cinema fused with art.

The director Mark Romanek delivers a subtle, somber story, done with ambiance and self reflection. From the cinematography to the haunting music score, every element of the film is in harmony with the soulful storyline.

Never Let Me Go, is not about people fighting back and escaping their fate. The film is a metaphor for what we strive for, a meaning to our own existence.



Sanshiro Sugata (1943) Akira Kurosawa

I have now seen 15 Akira Kurosawa films, he's obviously one of my favorite directors and, I think, one of the masters of cinema. I had never heard of this particular film, which is the first Kurosawa ever made and I'm glad I watched it since, even though it's not among Kurosawa's masterpiece, it's a very solid effort that has some glimpse of genious, but is lacking in some place. However, this can be explained by the fact that the movie was released in 1943 and that in Japan at that period, the film had to be a certian length so the movie was chopped up and the version we have today miss certain parts of the film.

In this part there will be some spoilers so if you didn't watch the film yet stop reading: I thought the ending was rushed and didn't make much sense, the girl follows him in the train (she was asked by her father), she has something in her eye then he goes to try to help her, stops and tells her he will comeback later, then we see a shot of the train and it's over???? I didn't see any point in finishing the film that way, it was weird. As for the particularly good parts, I loved when you see the main characters going in the stairs and seing the girl day after day I thought it was very well filmed and when I was speaking of glimpse of genious it was what I was referring to. I particularly enjoyed then he told her he was the on fighting her dad, then the girl stops in the middle of the stairs and Kurosawa moves back gradually with the camera with her in shock, it was beautiful. Also, this whole sequence was edited in a very ''shoppy'' manner which worked very well for me it was perfectly adequate to give it a certain style that I enjoyed very much.

Overall, pretty solid movie with an incomplete story, some not so good fight scenes, but some beautiful parts an a good entertainment value.
__________________
I do not speak english perfectly so expect some mistakes here and there in my messages



Post about your nom too mate. It kind of got to me if you read my review and i've thought about writing a second post about the second half of it. Would like to see some of your thoughts first though since you've ignored this.



Are you talking to me? haha

If I understand correctly, you'd like to me review Hiroshima mon Amour?
Would like you to join us in talking about whatever films. Your own would be a good start, but it doesn't matter as long as you actually join us.



Just saying that there's a few members here that will always respond to whatever and it would be nice if you were one, especially since your nom has popped up in discussions at least twice including yesterday here - http://www.movieforums.com/community...10#post1632510

Edit: Love how insane i look with deleted comments, embracing that.




Hiroshima mon amour
(1959)
Dir. Alain Resnais
Starring: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada


I could not get into this film at all. From the very start, I was put off by the manner in which Riva read out the opening lines. It sounded like an Arts student half-heartedly sharing a poem with their class to me. I didn't mind the rhyming, but the repetition seemed unnecessary and kept drawing my attention away instead of letting me focus on the visuals. I think she did much better in the second half of the film, but for the first half, whenever she spoke to Okada, she just reminded me of a language teacher trying to get the students to repeat what she said.

Whenever she and Okada laughed, it sounded so forced and unnatural it made me cringe. I didn't think the two had good chemistry at all. Many (if not all) of Okada's lines were clearly dubbed over in post. His French did sound really good throughout the film, but the dub was incredibly distracting to me. There is one scene about an hour in, where there is a close-up of Okada and the lip synchronization is not even close. With how poorly the ADR matched-up, it seemed like a strange decision to keep that shot in the final film.

I wish I could understand the praise for this Hiroshima mon amour, but it just did not engage me on any level. I was wholly disinterested from start to finish. It probably didn't help that the main characters were adulterers, so I had no sympathy for their love story at all. For me, they were poor avatars through which to tell the story of Hiroshima.
I get where you're coming from, however I disagree about their chemistry, I thought they are absolutely magic together, the direction however is the main star of this film, the dialogue by Marguerite Duras is also beautiful.

As for the lip synchronization, on the DVD I have at home I never noticed such a thing, I'll pay attention whe I rewatch it in the next couple of week!



Sanshiro Sugata (1943) Akira Kurosawa [. . .]
In this part there will be some spoilers so if you didn't watch the film yet stop reading: I thought the ending was rushed and didn't make much sense, the girl follows him in the train (she was asked by her father), she has something in her eye then he goes to try to help her, stops and tells her he will comeback later, then we see a shot of the train and it's over???? I didn't see any point in finishing the film that way, it was weird.
My assumption is that there was a much more prominent love story between the two that was part of the cut footage throughout the film, and that said censorship had an impact on the ending as well.



As for the lip synchronization, on the DVD I have at home I never noticed such a thing, I'll pay attention whe I rewatch it in the next couple of week!
I have a tendency to notice whenever synchronization is even slightly off, and it really bothers me for some reason. I find it wholly distracting, but it's probably not an issue to most audiences. Usually when I bring it up to friends, they'll say that they only noticed it after I pointed it out haha.



Yay,did you finally get to watch a movie you liked?
Ha, that's true...I do hope to find at least one nomination here that I truly love. I have my fingers crossed.

I have a tendency to notice whenever synchronization is even slightly off, and it really bothers me for some reason. I find it wholly distracting, but it's probably not an issue to most audiences. Usually when I bring it up to friends, they'll say that they only noticed it after I pointed it out haha.
I try not to notice the out of sink, but yeah if I do notice it, it becomes a distraction.



Let the night air cool you off



It doesn't seem as though the members of this hall of fame are very fond of Wes Anderson, and as is the case with his movies, you almost have to be a fan of his style to enjoy them. They are very unique to him, and you won't find any convincing imitations. He has a deep attention to detail for his mise en scene that, for some, might seem like clutter, but everything is meticulously placed at the exact markers he wants them to create a whimsically delightful painting in every frame. This applies more so to The Grand Budapest Hotel than to any of his other films, or at least this is the film he cranked that idea all the way up. He also has a unique voice in film writing than doesn't offer any imitators either. His sense of humor is one that I greatly appreciate, but those who are turned off by him are virulently turned off by his attempts at humor. They are often dismissive of his "quirk" and label him a one-trick pony. His color palette is also to be admired, from the yellow and blues of The Life Aquatic and the oranges of Fantastic Mr. Fox to the pinks, purples, and even the usage of black and grey in The Grand Budapest. The colors in his films fit into the mise en scene I was talking about earlier. They must be meticulously chosen, because they stand out so much. You know a Wes Anderson film when you see it, and that's not a good thing to everyone. The Grand Budapest Hotel is deeply steeped in all of the things that make up a Wes Anderson film. If you don't like Wes Anderson, then you won't like this film. It was never going to win over any detractors, but if you like Wes Anderson, this film was made for you and me.