14th Hall of Fame

Going to try to get another one watched today, most likely M since it's the shortest. That'll put me at five watched.

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So far I've gotten Barton Fink, Passengers, Contratiempo, Black Snake Moan, The Hurricane, and Mommy watched.

I still have to watch Time of the Gypsies, M, Empire of Passion, Lone Star(rewatch), La Grande Illusion, and Night on Earth.

So I'm exactly half way done. 6 out of 12.

Damn I've only seen three so far. You guys are making me look like I'm slacking.

I'll probably watch one tomorrow which should hopefully put me at 4/12

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don't feel pressured, yam, I'm at 4 myself and the last 3, probably 4 HoFs I've been pretty much THE LAST ONE to finish up and usually under the wire of the deadline
Also, a couple of folks with watch a very large amount and then write up their reviews near the end and knock 'em out that way, so.

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Not sure if this is frowned at but I wanted to re submit a review on Passengers because I feel my initial assessment of it wasn't very fair. So, I think that's what I'm going to do. Sometimes I need to think on titles for a while before I know for sure how I really feel about them.

Def not frowned upon. In fact, it's a good idea.

I'm at 3, it will be 4 tomorrow.

This was not only the nomination I was most looking forward to, but the 30's movie I've been most looking forward to. I liked the movie, but unfortunately I was a little disappointed. It's too bad that despite the amount of movies I watch, I am an average viewer. I don't often strongly take into account and properly appreciate the very technical and historical aspects of film. I did enjoy this classic, but it's greatness was mostly lost on me. For a thriller, I didn't find it consistently or especially thrilling, but at times I did find it chilling and terrifying. It was just a little sporadic. The movie looks good, but I've seen several earlier movies whose look impressed me more. I love Peter Lorre, and while he perfectly looks the part of what he played, I didn't feel it was a great performance. Unless of course you love a lot of bulging eyes. Still, I always liked watching him. The problem was he didn't get a ton of screen time and I didn't think any of the performances or characters left a strong impression. My biggest complaint was what seemed like strange pauses during talking scenes. One character would speak, another would respond, and then there'd be silence for what seemed like an unnatural amount of time. Also, it seemed like everything in the movie was spelt out to the audience without any hint of subtly. It is the type of dark movie and story that I'm very much drawn to. I just didn't love it.

Personally I like October 31st as a deadline. When these Hofs go on too long, they stagnate. Most people finish way early and then the last month of the Hof seems to drag.

There's no other Hofs going on right now, so Oct 31s should be easily doable. Besides it's not written in stone that it's 1 movie per week, it's solely up to host.

In the 12th Hof, Cricket had 5 days per movie and we all finished on time. Raul you're the boss, you call.

M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
Imdb

Date Watched: 9/3/17
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: 14th Hall of Fame, cosmicrunaway's nomination
Rewatch:No

Since joining this forum eight years ago, I'd seen M mentioned many times - alongside the image of Peter Lorre staring at his reflection - but until tonight had no real idea what the film was actually about. I knew only of its reputation.

Having now seen it, I've got mixed feelings. The overly theatrical performances frequently took me out of the film as did the completely silent scenes. I also didn't care at all for that ending speech by Beckert's "lawyer," but that has everything to do with my own opinion on the subject and is not the fault of the film.

That said, the film looked great and the combination of the imagery and the use of sound - such as the whistled "In the Hall of the Mountain King" - did make for some very eerie scenes. More than once I was reminded of more modern crime films such as Zodiac. I also thought the use of the Beggars association as surveillance was quite clever.

Ultimately though I found myself respecting the film a lot more than I actually liked it.

+

Did you check the "Movie Connections" section of its IMDB page? The documentary is probably listed there, either under the "Edited into" section or the "Featured in" section.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022100/movieconnections

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Just got back from the seaside, which means I'll probly start my film watching tommorow !

I'm probably going to watch Lone Star tonight, and another film tomorrow, which should put me at 5/12

Dom Za Vesanje POTENTIAL SPOILERS



What a weird film. I think it's a film that could do well. This is a movie that certainly isn't my cup of tea, although there are certain parts of the film I can respect. I really thought Perhan as a kid was really annoying. And I thought he was a straight up geek who would never be able to woo a girl like Azra, so unsurprisingly, I found that love pretty unbelievable. I really felt bad for him thought when his pet turkey died. I didn't like that scene as I thought it wasn't pertinent to what the film was trying to convey and I sort of felt like it was forced.

I also didn't like the fantasy elements of the film as well as the unrealistic scenes. The scene where Perhans families home gets lifted up in the rain, seemed sort of like a joke for me. And even before this I didn't like the attempted hanging scene either.

The end is what I really didn't like, where he stabs Ahmed and his brothers with a fork. To make it worse, Perhan ends up dying himself. It seemed like all a bit too much was happening at the end. And I didn't like how Perhan Jr. And Azra were treated by Perhan, so it was hard to feel any remorse for the main character.

With all being said, it won't be a memorable film but something keeps it from being completely hated by me. I think it had potential but it didn't reach it. I think it would have been better as more a story of overcoming odds or redemption, but I feel it took too quirky of a route. But I will say it's certainly a film that gambled rather than playing it safe.

The best part of the family was the grandma and her acting IMO. She was really good. And I liked seeing Perhan and his sister briefly reunite in the end. An OK film.

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There are 43 reviews now, 101 left

All 12 films have been reviewed at least once now.

I haven't read your review yet....but I'm looking forward to Time of the Gypsies. The small parts that I seen online looked pretty wacky-funny.

Make that 44....and it's coming up.

I felt like this movie was yelling at me for almost the entire time. BTW, I almost wrote this entire review in CAPS as to emulate the film's emotions. But you don't want to read a review in caps, so lucky you

I think this movie succeeded brilliantly at what it's trying to do. And oh yes, I understand why the director used that weird narrow format and the ultra closeups. The entire film was mostly near-close up to very close-ups and that was to immerse the viewer in the mom's world, she was literally trapped with a son whom she loved and yet HE WAS ALWAYS IN PEOPLES FACES.

The 1:1 screen ratio and the closeups give us a visual of ADD and boy did this kid have the ADD rages.

So this was genius film making and it worked too good on me, I must say. I was annoyed like I've never been annoyed before! God that kid drove me crazy. I truly hated him and his obnoxiously rude mother too.

I could just not take these people. Well except for the neighbor school teacher on sabbatical. I liked her, she was the only main character I could related to. She had most of the quieter scenes when she talked to the mom. I wanted to know more about her, she seemed to have something going on in her life but we never really find out what it is.

So in the end when the screen goes full screen and we see the grown boy, now a man, graduating from college and getting married...that too was cutting edge film making, because in that moment the mother dreamed what could have been, and her world opened up...and as her hope expanded, we had wide screen! Which made me breath a sigh of relief, though it was short lived.

I know it rubbed me wrong because at the sad ending at the mental institute and the boy is running around screaming and the health worker punched him in the face...I actually said out loud. Good that little jerk deserved it! Of course in the real world he wouldn't he wouldn't deserve it. But in the make believe world of cinema, I was glad of it.

So my respects to the film maker and I don't say this is a poorly made film, just the opposite it's an original, but it's not the type of film my personality can like.

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The backstory of the neighbor definitely has me curious too.

Wait, its supposed to be like that? Cause I tried to watch it and the aspect ratio made me think something was wrong with the stream I was using so I had to bail