The Women Directors Hall of Fame

yeah, that look that you continually see behind the smile has such intense foreboding. Even MORE SO after seeing this film

Mate that picture is exactly that moment in Nothing Bad Can Happen incredible find

Oh sht i just saw my naievite

Sorry i wasn't paying attention



I'm so drunk/naive/dumb/whatever.

never wanting the momentum to stop, I feel ya

great f@ckin video, man!

Time for a little update with two movies!



Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 1990) -

Well, it took my a little while to talk about this one. The reason is... well I don't know exactly what to say. The merits are clear to me, it's just the genre, or perhaps the idea of focusing complex historical circumstances of wide consequences through the lens of a single character, what I'm sort of not into. Knowing that this was a real story was quite amazing actually but I'm usually not very sold on biopics and one that gets so many changes of scenario and mood through the same character I kind of end up seeing his exclusive focus as a burden instead of a gateway.

That aside, I would probably nitpick some other things like the questionable taste in comedy the movie has at times (that sex in the train scene daaaamn) and the kind of rushed way some events are presented that make them quite difficult to show empathy with (the gay nazi soldier and his cute friendship with the main character, it was cute but I mean... there is a clear dissonance to me with Solomon's own perception because Robert seems so valuable to him and to me he's just an anecdote).

However the movie has a very valuable focus both as a display of the horrors of nazism and at its ability to humanize all the factions and characters while still putting emphasis on the horrors of nazism. It's an amazing balance, that brings a lot of interesting character dynamics, but it doesn't feel like it plays down in the slightest how vile nazis and their thoughts and acts were. The scenes at the academy to me are probably the best because they manage to convey a lot of contradictory perceptions about the characters from Solomon's view.

Well, I sort of rambled randomly I guess. But in short, this is a good movie with a solid development, but its genre and resulting format exhaust me and I have my issues with a few bad narrative or tonal decisions.




The last supper (Stacy Title, 1995) -

I'm not going to lie, I started this movie with the lowest expectations of perhaps the whole bunch of noms because I somehow had the idea that it had a rather negative reception here, so I'm very positively surprised by how well this ended up getting. I guess to a degree it's a matter of my personal liking for dark social comedy, as I find it very funny and it was a pleasant surprise because I started watching with zero knowledge of where was it going.

The satire is quite heavy-handed and obvious. But it's not like I have a problem with that. It even adds to the fun by allowing the movie to go over-the-top and preventing from taking itself too seriously, something that would damage its charm to a point. What didn't work that well to me was the heavy-handed symbolism of red color all over the movie, it got annoying after a while, but either way a lot of fun.

Aside from the narrative development, which took me by surprise because I didn't know anything about what this movie was about, I was also quite impressed by the delivery in other elements of the film. The soundtrack put me in a very nostalgic mood and it was really nice to hear. The acting. Iike that they took their performances seriously enough to match and deliver the over-the-top tones of the story without feeling unnatural, a very solid and likeable -well, sort of xD- cast. And last but not least I liked how the film manages to convey some genuine tension, specially in the dinner scenes, playing with the element of suspense provided by the green and blue bottle. Some great lessons learnt from Hitchcock there.

While I'm not 100% convinced with the film, probably to some degree as a result of my initial bad expectations getting in the way, but also due to some rather irregular and abrupt tonal shifts that took a while to assimilate, I ended up enjoying it a lot, and for sure a lot more than expected.

LOL. I havent seen The Last Supper but oh dear, that looks like a super entertaining dinner party. Going on my watch list.

I think you may get a kick out of it, Dani. Let me know what you think

Will do, Edar. Still having a chuckle at the looks on their faces.

Jal, good observation...Now that you mention it the green and blue bottles with one containing poison, and how it was handled, did seem like a Hitchcock idea and added tension as you said.

Thanks for your comment! Hitchcock is probably too much of a gold standard, but I didn't know how to describe that... Like, the movie knows how to create genuine tension about pre-established factors, it knows how to use timing and pause, how to play with space and position of the characters and objects, and how to create expectation. I was very pleasantly surprised to see these scenes this well delivered. To me it was one of the definitive highlights of the experience.

Agree, the bottles did have a lovely tip of the hat to a Hitchcock-esque scenario

ONE WEEK LEFT

@jal90 you don't have to watch American Psycho, Yam is obviously out. So that means you have four left. JJ and Hashtag both have two.

Also anyone that sent me a performance list with Bale in American Psycho on it can pick someone else. I'm not including a character from a film nominated from someone who didn't bother to finish and didn't even tell us he was out despite having ample opportunity.

Also when i do the reveal i'll be including the positions each film were listed in. Wherever you had a certain film may not be there that's because i've taken American Psycho off every list.

Thanks! Well, that's three then, I have to comment on A girl walks home alone by night. I'll watch American Psycho too though, it's a long pending one.

Also @HashtagBrownies nice review and thanks for your words. Too bad that you didn't like it too much but thanks for giving it a try!

@jiraffejustin @jal90 @HashtagBrownies

5 Days Left guys! I know you're getting annoyed of these mentions, ignore them i'm paranoid and want this to finish on time.

Don't worry, I'm watching Little Women this evening!

The answer to your spoiler is it was in the book and she was more developed in the book.

Glad you liked it!