Cobpyth's Film Reviews

[Swan]

Forbidden Planet is a great movie that inspired a script I never finished. :D

[cricket]

Nice review Cobpyth as usual. Realistically, I probably won't get to it until the 50's list, but you've got me looking forward to it.

[Cobpyth]

Nights of Cabiria (1957)

http://www.honeykennedy.com/content/uploads/2011/05/honey-kennedy-nights-of-cabiria-01.jpg

~~SPOILERS AHEAD!~~

What a wonderful film this is! I could go on and on about Fellini's virtuosic visual storytelling or Giulietta Masina's fantastic acting performance in this heart-whole piece of stunning cinema, but these are not the reasons why I wanted to write this short "free-form" review. I mainly want to talk about the film's content and especially the meaning and implications of the film's brilliant ending. I'm just going to write "from the heart" a little bit. Some sentences and words. No structure. My apologies to everyone who expected something decent!

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A prostitute gets robbed by her boyfriend. It's not the first time she's betrayed by someone who supposedly loves her.

Her angry, cynical and insecure self takes over.
She dances on the street.

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kydpqmR88E1qzu80so1_500.jpg

A movie star picks her up. This must be a dream. It turns out to be one of the many nightmares of reality... She's not someone's goal. She's an object of pleasure that can be tossed away in an instant. She's merely a distraction. She's not alive.

Can faith save her? Is there someone there to guard and guide her? She cries. Has something changed? She doesn't feel it. Nothing happens.
How dare they sell us false hope! How dare they believe!

A man feeds the homeless. Is there pure goodness in the world? He's the proof.

She's on a vaudeville stage. Hypnotized. She shares her inner feelings. She's like the rest of us. All of us. Longing for someone. Longing for romance. Warmth.

Oscar saw her true self. He saw something special. He gets her. They are the same. They should be together!

Cabiria leaves and sells everything for love. She's going to marry. She finally made it. Oscar doesn't even care about her past. It's almost too good to be true.
It is.

http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/10700000/Nights-of-Cabiria-federico-fellini-10767470-500-333.jpg

Everything turned out to be deception. One big disillusion. He doesn't love her.

A prostitute gets robbed by her boyfriend. It's not the first time she's betrayed by someone who supposedly loves her.

If there's one thing we've learned from history, it is that we haven't learned anything from it.

"KILL ME!"

Why would someone ever want to live the life she's living? Isn't the one true happiness in life to love and be loved?

Good questions. Painful questions. Bad questions. If there isn't faith and if there isn't love, then what gives us the strength to go on? What's the point? None.

Darkness. Sadness. Torn.

Cabiria gets up. Laughing humans suddenly enter the frame. Dancing teenagers. Happiness around her.

Her face. One beautiful tear and ... a smile.

What makes her smile? Hasn't she lost everything? Isn't it over?

Tragedy. Merciless tragedy.

But also a desperate and hopeful smile.

The lack of answers is frustrating and satisfying.

Life above death? Pain above death?

Why? Why not?

http://40.media.tumblr.com/dd042ddea57a6fc9be8a2f27d890982d/tumblr_n326bgHBvR1tw5xbqo1_500.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0Apin0CUAA7Pop.jpg

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Share your thoughts on this magnificent film!

5

[Swan]

That's a movie I really want to check out after having seen La Strada, if only because of Giulietta Masina.

[Cobpyth]

That's a movie I really want to check out after having seen La Strada, if only because of Giulietta Masina.

It's close to perfection, Swan!

I cried.

[Lucas]

Great review Cobpyth, love Nights of Cabiria although personally it's only my 8th or so favorite Fellini. Check out Juliet of the Spirits if you haven't already. It's 8 1/2 mixed with some of the most mindbending, trippy visuals I've ever seen, and it also happens to star Masina as the main character.

[Daniel M]

I watched Quiz Show recently and thought it was really good, although the longer it's been since I've seen it, the less 'spectacular' I think it is. Although you're definitely right in how it's thought provoking thinking about the modern world, especially with so many consumer based 'reality' shows around today, I really enjoyed Ralph Fiennes in the film, I think he's a really good actor. Even though I consider a couple of Fellini's films to be my very favourites, there is still a lot of his filmography for me to explore, with Nights of Cabiria being one of them. I'm definitely looking forward to it now.

[Cobpyth]

Tokyo Story (1953)

https://filmdump.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/tokyo-story-3.jpg

Besides his undeniable greatness as a visual director, there are plenty of other reasons why I love Ozu so much. One of the most important ones is that his films have a kind of fluent, natural, subtle and unforced way of conveying messages and wisdoms.

His most famous film, Tokyo Story, is a great example of this. Like Leo McCarey's wonderful Make Way for Tomorrow, the main thing the viewer is clearly meant to take away from this film is to respect and love the elderly (especially if they are your parents). This in itself is already one of the great strenghts of both of these movies of course. They both make the viewer think about a universal and important moral to uphold that easily gets forgotten if we wouldn't dwell on it from time to time.

The reason why both of these films are so effective, though, is that they are told in a very balanced way. The children aren't evil and the elderly aren't holy. They're all simply humans who have their own logical desires, irritations and values. We understand the children and we understand their elderly parents and yet, we can't shake off the feeling that the parents are the true victims.

The films even go out of their way at times to portray the children as the victims, but it simply strengthens their message. For instance, in Make Way for Tomorrow, the elderly mother is constantly annoying the guests of her daughter-in-law during an evening of playing cards and in Tokyo Story the elderly father and an old friend of his arrive at the home of his daughter blind drunk in the middle of the night and without even a warning. The films show us the emotions and the reasoning of both the children and the parents in these situations and against all logic, we still feel more empathized with the elderly. It's a testament to the greatness of these films. They feel so good about what they're trying to say, that they are not afraid to challenge themselves.

In all its wisdom, Tokyo Story is able to make the viewers observe and understand for themselves what's truly going on and the alcoholic escapade of the elderly father proves that. We come to understand that the struggles of the children are nothing compared to the struggles of the parents, even when those struggles are never literally spelled out or pointed at. We observe both sides and as witnesses, we simply come to feel that one side is in so much more actual pain than the other.

Instead of being told the message, Tokyo Story makes us feel the message, but that's only half of why the film is so great. What truly makes it a masterpiece, is that its way of manipulating our feelings can't truly be argued against in any way. It gives the viewer the impression, or perhaps even makes them realize, that what they've felt, is also the unadulterated truth. A rarity in art.

5

[Gideon58]

Quiz Show (1994)

https://waterfrontcinema.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/1994-quiz-show.jpg?w=584&h=395

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Redford really knocked it out of the park here...Ralph Fiennes and John Turturro were brilliant.

[Gideon58]

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

http://www.mancode.eu/imagegen.ashx?image=/media/3405858/3%20-%20CAROUSEL.jpg&width=558



Loved this film and loved your review of it.

[Gideon58]

The Band Wagon (1953)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zAoyoHwC5IQ/StjftnBIHyI/AAAAAAAAGQg/umuG6yQ0maY/s400/Band+Wagon+(1953)+16.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/the-band-wagon/w448/the-band-wagon.jpg?1333806671


The rep is for your review of this film, finally someone who appreciates the brilliance of this film the way I do...most people consider Singin in the Rain to be MGM's masterpiece, but I think it's The Band Wagon.

[Swan]

Ozu is one of those guys I could never connect with, and thus make me feel like I'm missing out considering the praise.

[Cobpyth]

Ozu is one of those guys I could never connect with, and thus make me feel like I'm missing out considering the praise.

Which of his films have you seen so far?

[Swan]

Tokyo Story, Late Spring, and Early Summer.

[Camo]

Great review, Cob :up:. I'd say Tokyo Story is one of my favourite films and yet i still haven't seen anything else from Ozu :facepalm:. Planning on getting into him properly soon.

[Cobpyth]

Tokyo Story, Late Spring, and Early Summer.

You should definitely watch one of his color films then. Those are the truly irresistable ones, purely visually. I think the color-aspect may be the extra dimension some people need to truly get drawn into his films (even the people who usually have no problems with black & white films, like you). His use of color is simply phenomenal. It's truly of the highest level in cinematic history.

I highly recommend his swan song, An Autumn Afternoon, which is my personal favorite film of his. If you don't connect with that one, I guess Ozu might not be for you.

[Swan]

Will give it a shot. There's a chance I just have to warm up to him. I remember my last Ozu viewing, Late Spring, was my best Ozu viewing. We'll see.

[Cobpyth]

Maybe you could also watch some of his other color films first, because An Autumn Afternoon and Late Spring are pretty similar story-wise. Perhaps something like Good Morning or Floating Weeds is what you're looking for. Both are a little different from what you've seen from him so far.

[Swan]

I'll definitely keep trying.