14th Hall of Fame

looking forward to your reviews, Jeff!

I have Empire of Passions from my library, just need to sit down and watch it

I saw the first fifteen minutes of Empire of Passion until I realized the source was only 15 minutes long. I'll need to try and finagle another way to see it. My library does not carry it.

It's on Filmstruck if you have that.

I'll look into it. I usually shy away from entering in cc info for trial runs but we'll see.

I'll have to wait until next weekend. I use a friend's account to get my DVDs and only go to her house on Wednesdays or Fridays. I thought it had already came in the mail but it had not.

A love affair with a military man and a married woman leads to them murdering her husband and throwing him down a well to live together as a couple.

I didn't really enjoy this movie based on the content and mentality, especially since everything was kind of in your face and graphic. There was definitely a perverse intention in the directing that I feel could have been classed up a bit with some implication instead of just hitting you over the head with shocking images.

At the risk of sounding prudish, I think this movie would have been better had the director used some better judgment in how to tell the story. I could not really see any kind of connection between any one character and that set me back from fully taking the ride from an emotional standpoint. I was always kind of in the cold watching this.

There was plenty of malfunction and mental illness on display, but hardly could I feel like anyone was making a good decision, and to hang on to this story knowing that justice would be served seemed a bit pointless to me. I realize this was a morality tale, but not once did I feel like any character had a strong enough hold on themselves or their motives because the writing wasn't fleshed out enough. There was no nuance. It was all just a wide and plain perspective. "I want you. We kill him now. I feel scared. I feel bad now. We messed up."

The look of the film is beautiful. The images created with fog and lighting, as well as the autumnal scenery really made an impression on me. The creative team here knew what they were doing, and I think that is a lot of the allure of a film like this. Had this been shot just adequately instead of with great care, I'm quite sure this would have been laughed off a lot more than it probably is.

I also really enjoyed the musical score. It helped the ghost story aspect of the movie quite a bit.

I probably would have liked this a lot better if I could have at least felt something for any of the characters, but I couldn't. They all came off a bit too dramatic or goofy, and even with the procedural aspect I felt it was blown off in favor of an almost child-like way of telling a story. An old tale. Very broad strokes. I'm not sure that worked for me considering the strong content of the movie. I think the perverse aspect comes into play when I mention this. Some kind of adult-kid fantasy of seeing deep erotic and violent/ruthless behavior mixed with a doe eyed way to present it all. Not really my flavor to be honest.

It was interesting at the very least, and for that I'm glad it was nominated. Special shout to @cricket for hooking me up with a reliable way to watch it!

And that's it for me. Got all the movies watched. Is my next step to submit a list of ranking order?

I had planned to watch a film for this yesterday, but Survivor kind of got in the way haha. If I don't watch one tonight, it'll be tomorrow at the latest. Due to my work schedule this week I probably won't get the last one watched until next weekend though. That's still plenty of time before the deadline at least haha.

Indeed.

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Make a list, #1 your favorite to #12 your least favorite and sent it to raul in PM.

Great lil write up for Empire of Passion. I'm watching it now and about half way through.

La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
Imdb

Date Watched: Finished 10/7/17, not sure when I started it.
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: 14th Hall of Fame, edarsenal's nomination
Rewatch: No

This one was a huge struggle for me and it took several attempts over several days to get through it.

I’m not especially fond of watching old films, I’m not especially fond of watching black and white films, I’m not especially fond of watching foreign films (they’ve got to really grab my interest if I’m going to commit to reading a movie for a few hours), and I’m not especially fond of watching films about war. Now, none of these things by themselves are enough to make me dislike a film and there are films that have several of these strikes against them that I still enjoy. This is not one of them.

While I understand what Renoir was going for with his commentary on classism and prejudice and I get that the film’s values and view of war are similar to my own, it just didn’t work for me. Try as I might, I simply did not care about any of its characters. I didn’t care if they escaped. I didn’t care if they died and by the time Boeldieu made his sacrifice, I’d long ago mentally checked out of the film. The excrutiatingly drawn out ending didn’t help matters, either. (Did we really need to see what’s-his-face talk to the ****ing cow?)

I don’t deny that the fault in this lies with me – that my attention span and patience seem to be shrinking with age and that I probably wasn’t in the best frame of mind to be watching this - but I found it absolutely unimpressive and overly long for what it contained. Usually I can find something to praise about any film – maybe one of the performances was strong. Maybe a bit of dialogue moved me. Maybe some unique and interesting cinematography or set designs were featured. But on this I have nothing. I was utterly bored.

I’m hesitant to even rate it because no matter what I choose, it won’t really be fair. But I shall do as I often do and base my rating on my movie watching experience.

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bless you, @Miss Vicky for the determination to finally get through it and still, a splendid review, as they usually are.

Both my dad and my best friend told me I should just give up, look up a synopsis, and fake a review. I was SO tempted to take that advice, but I forced myself to finish, with much profanity involved.

Just have Contratiempo left now.

I hope this failure of a Hall of Fame won't make you shy away from the next one.

I'm more concerned about the likelihood of there being a bunch of 30s movies nominated than anything else. But yeah, I am on the fence about joining the 15th.

I saw this with my wife when it first came on video around 1997. I remembered it being a good movie, yet I remembered almost nothing about the movie itself. I can see why. It is a very well crafted movie and I enjoyed watching it. It's just not a movie that will stay with me. I love Chris Cooper and he puts in a fine performance. It could even be a great performance, but I don't think there's anything about his character that demands attention. The only time I'm riveted during the movie is when Kris Kristofferson is on screen. He is very well suited for his role. He always seemed to give the movie a jolt of intensity and excitement just in the nick of time. That doesn't mean I didn't like the rest of the movie because I did. It's just somewhat bland and forgettable.

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I thought you would like that much more

Me too, actually. I had skimmed through a few posts when people were talking about it earlier in the thread, and was intrigued by the telekinesis and its supposed quirkiness. But the film just didn't click for me. I've been reading some other reviews online, and other than my dislike of Perhan, the problem seems to be that I didn't understand what the film was trying to accomplish, or what the tone was supposed to be.

I didn't think you would like it, as I expect to be the normal response given how I felt about it too

One thing I forgot to bring up: Did anyone else think that the start of Time of the Gypsies felt a little bit like Wings of Desire? With the camera moving around to these different people (who are spouting very strange dialogue that sounds like it could be their inner thoughts or prayers), I found it hard not to draw a comparison there.