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BTW, I liked your nom Hashtag.
The Women Directors Hall of Fame
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Cool, wasn't aware. It's released in the US the day after my 25th Birthday.
That means only Siddon and JJ haven't reviewed Morvern Callar.
That means only Siddon and JJ haven't reviewed Morvern Callar.
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Balanced things a bit, yes, but let's not pretend the film doesn't have an agenda. The conservative characters couldn't be written more absurdly.
Did you like We Need To Talk About Kevin? Or are you mixing his nom up with someone else? I didn't get the impression you liked it much, i easily could have misread it though.
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Sean...I was thinking if The Last Supper had been made politically flipped with the group of people being intellectual snobby conservatives who poisoned off loud mouth opinionated liberals who supported well known liberal causes...Then, I very well might have felt like you did. So yes, I can understand where you're coming from.
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Personally, i don't think it would change my opinion and i also don't think your description is a straight political flip. None of the Conservatives other than Paxton are loud mouths, they are all polite just with controversial views that they feel strongly about, and they all believe the liberals are trying to engage them in a good faith debate at first which is obviously not the case. The liberals are out hunting for conflict while the conservatives are presumably just going about their lifes before being invited to the dinner party which is an ambush. I think the liberals come off just as bad if not worse than the conservatives so things being flipped wouldn't bother me.
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I hated them, maybe your more conservative than me.
Nah i didn't like them either, just saying they were polite and the liberals were just as bad if not worse. The thing is those aren't supposed to be accurate portrayals of conservatives, they are deliberately exaggerated ridiculous conservatives; basically what the liberals think all conservatives are like so i think it's being more critical of the liberals than the conservatives there. Like strawmen conservatives the liberals have built in their mind to easily tear down. Ron Pearlman is the most reasonable of any of the political characters in the film and he's a conservative. That's why i don't agree with it being a liberal agenda coz i don't see how anyone could watch that and think the liberals come off better.
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Morvern Callar I think the suicide guy had the right idea, if I remember anything from this film a month from now I'll be shocked. It has a nice dream like quality to it, the music is lovely. I don't mind slow meditative films but I would prefer to care about the characters, or the ideas. This is just sort of a wish fulfillment for dullards. It does have some strong points to it, the blocking of the scenes was very impressive. I kept thinking these are some really nice shots I just wish I cared about the characters or the story.
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Orlando
Just finished Orlando. I'm pretty sick right now so just made a short post that probably doesn't make sense haha, will probably add more when i'm feeling better if a discussion about it comes up at some point or whatever. I thought it was pretty great. That's me finished then, will add my list to Cricket's tomorrow most likely.
Have never read anything by Virginia Wolf so i'm not able to compare this to the novel, probably for the best anyway as it allows me to see this as its own thing. I liked it a lot. It all felt very poetic and i got a magical realism feel from it an interesting take on a time so often seen as rigid and formal. It's just straight up beautiful; the sets, the costumes, the way its filmed, even the dialogue in places although i think they tripped up at times there. And oh man the music was so good i liked that it was often playing in the scene like the iceskating scene, the music and Swinton's delivery and facial mannerisms made that scene something really wonderful. That's what i mostly thought of this as a collection of great scenes using various different techniques, i don't really care about it as the one cohesive story which is a good thing in my mind as it went with the dreamy nature of it all and of course the time skips made it feel like you were watching several different movies; or several different episodes actually. Tilda was great as always and she is perfect for this sort of role, she absolutely looks like someone who could have came from the 17th Century. She looks so similar to the paintings of Elizabeth the 1st that i was kind of thrown that someone else was playing her haha. Completely understand the lukewarm reactions to this and costume/historical drama's in general, you have to have some interest in the attempt in visually and tonally recreating or reimagining an era that some people are just not going to care about, some times it doesn't work for me but it did here. I'm sure the poetic and fancy dialogue bothered some too but i felt it completely fit the tone and themes. Great nom Ed, one of the best in this Hall of Fame.
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Europa Europa (1990)
I liked it...I never dreamed it was going to be so entertaining! A very fun watch. I don't know if I was suppose to be so amused by it, but I was and I laughed out loud at some of his predicaments. Just thinking about his wacky girlfriend or the scene at the Soviet orphanage school, cracks me up.
Right at the start I was hooked into the story line and it held my attention fast. The film really did feel 'big' in that it felt like we were traveling from Germany to Poland to Russia, and back again. It gave a good sweep of WWII from different viewpoints and did it well.
What amazed me was how light and entertaining the film felt for such a serious subject matter. A lot of ironic/funny stuff like: the seduction by the big German woman on the train, who's yelling 'my Fuhrer, my Fuhrer'...and the scene where he surrendered to the Polish army, only to 'capture' them and become a hero to the German army, ha...I mean man! did this kid get around or what! He did everything, went everywhere! which I thought was pretty cool and reminded me of Forest Gump.
Good nom, and I'm done with the movies. There were some choice films here, thanks everyone!
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Europa, Europa
... it reminded me of was Forrest Gump, that's basically what this was before Forrest Gump was made haha... ...It reminded my of the great German movie The Tin Drum, and strangely, Forrest Gump. That latter comparison really hit me with the scene in which he got credited with capturing the enemy...
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Me, Cricket and Citizen are finished, Thursday is almost and most of the rest are well on their way. There's about eight and a half weeks left so to be on schedule you'd have to have seen at least three films. Yam has watched his second with Orlando he just hasn't reviewed it yet and i don't know what's happening with Jal, if we haven't heard from him with 7 weeks left i'll try and contact him.
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Me, Cricket and Citizen are finished,
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You haven't listed my nom on the front page, did you actually finish?
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I've already seen We Need To Talk About Kevin twice and i said i'll post something about it later.
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If there's one word to describe this film, it's atmosphere.
I wasn't really fond of anything in the movie until I hit about the 30 minute mark. There was just something about the romantic plot that got me into it. While there are many great things about the film, I think it relies solely on its atmosphere. The dark, deserted streets where you feel danger around every corner, despite being so close to home. When the film first started and I saw it was in b&w, I thought it was just 'hipster trash'. I began to realize that it actually was used to increase the intimidating atmosphere of the film. The soundtrack is pretty good, one piece took heavy inspiration from Morrocone's "The Ecstasy of Gold" (My favourite piece of music of all time btw). The song choices were awesome, I enjoyed every one of them. I noticed the way in which certain scenes were shot to create suspense, that was pretty cool.
Also the film had a budget of only $57,000 and was raised on Indigogo. Kudos to the person who set up the page.
A fairly solid, atmospheric film. Might check out 'The Bad Batch' by the same director. Very good nom Thursday.
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The Ascent
I know my feelings toward this film are unfair, but I can't help it. I am very frustrated with it. I probably waited too long to see this film, because it's one of those films that I've meant to see for a very, very long time, to the point where the anticipation skyrocketed expectations to a point where they are probably not likely to be met. However, for as long as the film is taking place outside, they were more than met. Snow is automatically a plus, I can probably rattle off a dozen films where the snow has been a tremendous choice. Weather in general is an important aspect to cinema, but snow is the weather that looks the best. Especially in black and white. I was so in love with what I was seeing that I was just bummed out when the snow was basically a forgotten element. I kept thinking about how much I wanted them to escape so I could see them tangle with nature instead man or themselves. I did notice the really excellent thing this film did: present the viewer with the question of what they would do if they were in a similar situation. Talk about a horrifying moral dilemma. Would you preserve your own skin at the cost of either your comrades or an innocent mother of young children? Would you be willing to subject yourself to the enemy of your people? The final scene with trip to the gallows and everything that follows is quite amazing too. I think I am talking myself into loving this film the more I write. I definitely like it more now than I did just a few seconds ago when I started this. I will say that I did kinda feel a little bit of Tarkovsky here, but not overwhelmingly so. Just some long shots that reminded me of him here and there, but I feel like if I'd had seen Ivan's Childhood, perhaps the influence would have been more apparent to me. It's really sad that Mrs. Shepitko's life was cut so short, because she most certainly would have given us more great films.
I know my feelings toward this film are unfair, but I can't help it. I am very frustrated with it. I probably waited too long to see this film, because it's one of those films that I've meant to see for a very, very long time, to the point where the anticipation skyrocketed expectations to a point where they are probably not likely to be met. However, for as long as the film is taking place outside, they were more than met. Snow is automatically a plus, I can probably rattle off a dozen films where the snow has been a tremendous choice. Weather in general is an important aspect to cinema, but snow is the weather that looks the best. Especially in black and white. I was so in love with what I was seeing that I was just bummed out when the snow was basically a forgotten element. I kept thinking about how much I wanted them to escape so I could see them tangle with nature instead man or themselves. I did notice the really excellent thing this film did: present the viewer with the question of what they would do if they were in a similar situation. Talk about a horrifying moral dilemma. Would you preserve your own skin at the cost of either your comrades or an innocent mother of young children? Would you be willing to subject yourself to the enemy of your people? The final scene with trip to the gallows and everything that follows is quite amazing too. I think I am talking myself into loving this film the more I write. I definitely like it more now than I did just a few seconds ago when I started this. I will say that I did kinda feel a little bit of Tarkovsky here, but not overwhelmingly so. Just some long shots that reminded me of him here and there, but I feel like if I'd had seen Ivan's Childhood, perhaps the influence would have been more apparent to me. It's really sad that Mrs. Shepitko's life was cut so short, because she most certainly would have given us more great films.
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I was so in love with what I was seeing that I was just bummed out when the snow was basically a forgotten element. I kept thinking about how much I wanted them to escape so I could see them tangle with nature instead man or themselves.
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