14th Hall of Fame

I'm quite pleased that Barton Fink seems to be doing quite well here

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Letterboxd

I KNOW, right!
I kept hearing how much it's supposed to suck, and being young, or worse - ACTING young is where it's at. . . f@ckin buffoons

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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

Yeah, I noticed that. Acting young. My 75 y/o dad does that, and while that is kind of cool, because he pulls it off tastefully, I see other ppl doing it and it's like.."oh no, this whole world has become infected with smarmy Seth Roganitis".

It's a joke. People are terrified to be real so..whatcha' goan' do? Haha..it's all good. See you in hell, suckers. Nah haha lol jk

Here's to getting old and enjoying BEING old!!

I don't know why I reped, that but I did.

Damn right, bro. Getting older means something important...it locks you in to a commitment and a steady mind at times, so you're no longer working for the system organized from magazine and/or media..it's way more important than that, and way less stringent. It's basically a laugh and a f#ck you to the world.

YOU know why and hell, Joel just said why

I don't think a real deadline was set. Let's go with October 31 if that's ok with everyone.

Empire of Passion (Ai no bôrei) (Nagisa Ôshima, 1978)
Imdb

Date Watched: 9/2/17
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: 14th Hall of Fame, jiraffejustin's nomination
Rewatch:No

Possible Spoilers Ahead

I don't have a whole lot to say about this one. I went into it without having read anything about it and so was unaware of the horror aspect until it happened. Once it became clear what the movie was about, I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little: a married woman has an affair and she and her lover decide to murder her husband so that they can be together, only to have everything fall apart in the end. Not exactly the most original premise.

But even a cliche like that can work well for me if the filmmaker gets creative with the details and the performances are strong. Unfortunately, neither of those things really happened. The performances were very theatrical - and therefore off-putting for me - and much of the horror elements just came off as cheesy, especially any scene that showed Gisaburo's ghost. Also grating were the characters of Toyoji - who from the very beginning struck me as obnoxious and not at all attractive - and his weird-ass brother (What was up with that guy, anyway?).

There were some things that I liked. I thought the scene where Seki gets a ride from ghost Gisaburo was actually well shot and creepy - at least until the final faceless bit. I also thought the score was very good.

Ultimately, however, the film was something of a chore for me to get through and I frequently found myself checking the time.

+

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This is a quote from an interview with Oshima:

So it mostly seems to be commentary on how we treat the mentally ill/handicapped these days in comparison to before. It's as good an answer as any, I guess.

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I watched this once a year or so ago via a recommendation from Miss Vicky. I liked it but it didn't grab me or stay with me at all. Maybe it was a case of the movie not being what I thought it was. I expected to feel the same this time but instead I got a much better outcome. So much so that now I think it is kind of great. I must have just connected with and cared for the characters more. I have always enjoyed movies with the theme of two very different people finding common ground due to their problems or pain. What could have easily been an entertaining exploitation movie ends up being something very human and ultimately uplifting. This was probably my second favorite performance from Sammy Jackson after Pulp Fiction. With the exception of his Tarantino films, he always seems to play boring characters. He was great in this, as was Ricci, and most importantly they were perfectly cast for their roles. I liked all of the supporting performances as well. It's a shame this movie didn't do better when it was out because we need more movies with this type of originality. At first I wondered if I liked how the movie looked. I normally like a more gritty look, but I got used to it and ended up believing the look was right. The music was a huge asset. For me, and I would assume for most, the movies I'm least excited to see nominated are the ones I've seen fairly recently and wasn't in love with. That was the case with this movie but the result turned out to be a great surprise.

I'm thrilled to see you had a better experience this time, cricket, and am really glad you gave it a second chance.

October 31 works great for me.

the more I read of Empire of Passion the more I begin to wonder if I may have seen it or simply seen another, perhaps older version of the same storyline. Time will tell.

Glad to hear Black Snake resonated better with you, cricket

If everyone's alright with October 31st than alright, but if we started on August 21st shouldn't the deadline be on November 13th according to usual " 1 nom =1 week" standard.

This is what I'd prefer.

I would have preferred October 31st as that's my last day of my last vacation of the year, but we can see if we need the extension. Looks like some will be done by the end of this month at this rate. I'm truly in no hurry one way or another.

I didn't even realise that October 31st was not how 1 nomination per week worked out haha.

I just noticed that I've already watched 6 of the films. If I get around to writing something about Barton Fink, I'll officially be halfway through.

Dom Ze Vesanje for me next. That will be my fourth.

I was actually thinking about watching that, or possibly La Grande Illusion next.

Making October 31 a possible deadline and seeing where everyone is at is very feasible. We all do seem to be going at a very good speed right now. I've got 4 completed, myself.

Barton Fink is very strong possible rewatch for me, but random viewing DOES seem to be my pattern.
Time of the Gypsies looks really good and I think, Cosmic, you may enjoy La Grande Illusion. Will enjoy your perceptive review regardless.