The 19th Hall of Fame

Msg

Registered User

07-11-19

The Virgin Spring, funny how I watched Midsommar last night and then this one tonight and the 1960's film had a stronger impact with less gore, less money and in black and white.

Based on a medieval poem the film is a story of a young woman who is brutally raped and murdered by a group of farmers in Sweden. The film touches on the nature of faith, the conflict between paganism and Christianity. The film is haunting with it's shots and the reactions of the characters in the story. You have several moments in the film where it just feels raw and real.

Visually the film is stunning but it never lingers on it's shots (something that is common in todays' cinema) you can blink and miss some incredible cinematography I missed the human finger the first time I watched the film.

Brilliant film and a great nomination this concludes my run with this Hall of Fame.

ahwell

Registered User

07-11-19

Return to Paradise

This movie wasn't as bad as some of the reviews here have said it was, in my opinion. While it is nowhere near a favorite and won't rank high in this hall of fame, it was generally engaging watch. The characters were interesting, the storyline engaging enough, and looked pretty good too. However, my problems with it were that it was simply stretched way too thin, just like Gaslight. There was no plot substance like you get in Pulp Fiction or The Godfather - that is, interwoven plots that once can engage in at the same time. That is not to say that the simple structure of Return to Paradise is bad, but it could have worked much better with a shorter running time.

gbgoodies

I'd give her a HA! and a HI-YA! Then I'd kick her.

07-11-19

I liked Return to Paradise, but I thought the romance between Sheriff and Beth was unnecessary. I thought the basic premise of the movie about whether or not Sheriff and Tony should go back and take responsibility to save their friend was great, and I loved the way Sheriff went back and forth about what he should do.

View Spoilers

WARNING: "SPOILERS about the ending of "Return to Paradise"!!!" spoilers below

I actually wanted to movie to go just a little bit longer because I wanted to see a confrontation at the end between Beth and the reporter. It just felt like a letdown that we didn't get to see Beth confront the reporter about what happened and how she caused Lewis' death.

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GulfportDoc

Registered User

07-12-19

Originally Posted by Siddon

Siddon, you have hit the nail on the head. Please take a seat at the head of the class!

The Virgin Spring is one of many hundreds of examples of how powerful subjects can be dramatized without the use of exaggerated graphic violence or sex. This particular Bergman film stayed with me for months after its viewing.

Modern film (and for that matter, modern society) puts me in mind of how Rome fell; and in particular the Roman games, which started as sporting events between contestants using wooden swords, but gradually degenerated into public displays of mutilation, torture, and mayhem. Our current trend toward decay is obvious.

IMO people's imaginations are much stronger and more useful tools for filmmakers. But it's so much easier to appeal to viewer's sanguinary and prurient tendencies..

~Doc

cricket

Registered User

07-14-19

Originally Posted by Siddon

And you thought Forrest Gump was better than the Godfather

/smh

Cinema Paradiso is the coming of age story of Salvatore and his relationship with Alfredo the owner and projectionist of a Movie House named Cinema Paradiso. The film takes the familiar three act structure of portraying Salvatore as a child, teenager, and adult. The adult portion is used for exposition, the teenage part for conflict and the child part for the world building.

Like most films from this era it has a very simple and strong message that I'm not sure I agree with and that's what hurts the film in my eyes...to a point. The film isn't just about a love of movies but also the role of a father and family in each person's lives. Salvatore has been orphaned by the war while Alfredo is a confirmed bachelor. Alfredo leads a somewhat sexless life while Salvatore grows into a person that just has meaningless relationship after meaningless relationship. What is this film telling us about love. The conflict in the first part is the teenage Salvatore falling in love with a girl and then going off to serve and losing touch with her. Is their is a strong sense of cynicism to go with the nostalgia, at one point Alfredo loses his sight in a fire and his love of film is basically taken away from him.

Unfortunately when you have a film where the artist is trying to tell you something other things fall by the wayside. I'm not really sure if any of the performances where strong or if they even mattered because the messaging overwhelms the film. Is this a film or is this a philosophy lecture and how does one properly rate a film like this.

Alfredo was married.

KeyserCorleone

Registered User

07-15-19

Cinema Paradiso

When I first saw it, the sentiment was the main reason I loved it. With this shorter version, I still felt related to it because I love cinema almost as much as Salvatore. And though it's practically impossible to ruin Cinema Paradiso, the movie felt condensed because of the edit. I prefer the 2 1/2 hour version because there's more to it, but I still love the movie. It's hard to find a better old man and little boy pair than Salvatore and Alfredo, and the 0eople around them like the stuffy priest make the movie much more meaningful and lively.

John-Connor

Registered User

07-17-19

Angel Face 1953

Enjoyable watch, good movie!
Solid performances by Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum.
Really liked the music, setting and great directing by Otto Preminger.
Loved the ending, it definitely contributed to a higher popcorn-bucket percentage in my rating.
That look Jean Simmons gives Frank in the final scene, is the absolute highlight of her performance and film for me. The car tumbling down the cliff with the puppets sadly takes away just a little grandeur out of the climactic scene.

(Think it's relevant to mention I just watched Otto Preminger's masterpiece Anatomy of Murder perfectly restored on Blu-ray. The best version of Angel Face I could get my hands on was a DVD with almost VHS-like picture quality. I tried to not let that influence this watch, but i'm sure subconsciously, it did)

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edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

07-17-19

Originally Posted by John-Connor

Angel Face 1953

Enjoyable watch, good movie!
Solid performances by Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum.
Really liked the music, setting and great directing by Otto Preminger.
Loved the ending, it definitely contributed to a higher popcorn-bucket percentage in my rating.
That look Jean Simmons gives Frank in the final scene, is the absolute highlight of her performance and film for me. The car tumbling down the cliff with the puppets sadly takes away just a little grandeur out of the climactic scene.

(Think it's relevant to mention I just watched Otto Preminger's masterpiece Anatomy of Murder perfectly restored on Blu-ray. The best version of Angel Face I could get my hands on was a DVD with almost VHS-like picture quality. I tried to not let that influence this watch, but i'm sure subconsciously, it did)

That was exactly how I felt the first time I saw this and was looking forward to it as I rewatched it. Catching a few hints of that look in plenty of scenes I had not realized on the first watch of this a year or two ago.

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Last edited by edarsenal; 07-18-19 at 03:28 PM.

rauldc14

2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ

07-17-19

I bought my nomination via The Criterion Collection sale and I'll be watching it on my days off next week.

John-Connor

Registered User

07-18-19

The Virgin Spring 1960 �Jungfruk�llan� Directed by Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman, have to be careful what I say, the 'art-house mafia' is always watching.

Seriously, very artful film, enriching watch. It successfully captured the Scandinavian fairy/folk tale poem atmosphere. Loaded with symbolism and metaphors, which were executed and came across very well on screen.
Pleasant run time, and beautiful ending.
The film is most certainly from the art-house universe, so it will be hard to rank/rate/compare to the other nominees.
Good nomination, contributing to diversity in this hall of fame.

ahwell

Registered User

07-18-19

I think I'll need links to a subtitled "The Virgin Spring" and "Angel Face." I tried ordering them from my library but unfortunately it's moving to a new location and my holds won't be available until mid-August.

KeyserCorleone

Registered User

07-19-19

Raging Bull

Like any Martin Scorsese movie with Robert De Niro, this movie kicks ass. It was pretty rough to see Jake La Motta become the person he turned out to be for most of the second-half, seeing at full force how he created a lot of his own problems. And even though the charisma between De Niro and Joe Pesci (whi is so irresistibly sleazy that he could be an AC/DC album) was a wonderful thing to witness, My favorite thing to see in this movie was Coach from Cheers playing a wise and foul-mouthed mob boss. I'd put a couple of other De Niro movies above this one, along with Scorsese's rock movie The Last Waltz. But I'm glad I finally got around to this and it was a great way to end the marathon for this game.

edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

07-20-19

Gaslight

Gregory Anton: You see how it is, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: I see JUST how it is, sir.

Originally, when I first saw this nominated, I got it mixed up with Rebecca where poor Joan Fontaine is troubled by her husband's past played by Laurence Olivier.
It does have a Hitchcock feel to the slow maddening, psychological manipulation that our heroine Ingrid Bergman is put through by such a cold, calculating husband, (Charles Boyer). Who truly gives us an absolute snake we can detest as we pity and worry over Bergman's Paula.

I have seen this, a very long time ago and only remembered a few bits and pieces and had completely forgot how it ended, which, for me was

View Spoilers

WARNING: "well worth the wait of the two hour film" spoilers below

as Bergman had the opportunity to fling all the lies and deception back into Boyer's face.
"A knife? Surely you must be mad, husband. This can't be a knife in my hand. See how I'm always losing things. . ."

And while it did seem a bit long in coming, the pacing was and is, correct, for this film as all of this occurs over some five months or so.
I also enjoyed all of the secondary characters (Lansbury was excellent playing such a little sh#t) adding a pleasant touch here and there as we follow, knowing full well the culprit and his designs.

Along with this, the settings, lighting and camerawork worked wonderfully as well for me.

ahwell

Registered User

07-20-19

Originally Posted by ahwell

Anyone?

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capitial 'T'

07-20-19

Originally Posted by ahwell

Anyone?

Give me a few minutes and I'll look, then PM you.

ahwell

Registered User

07-21-19

Angel Face

Another big surprise for me in this Hall of Fame. I've never been a huge fan of noir, but Angel Face did a good job of portraying in-depth characters and ideas. There were some crazily cool and modern moments in this movie, like near the end when we just see Diane walking around the house like she's in a trance... we learn later what she might be contemplating. The "twists," both involving cars, must have shocked audiences as well. This isn't Preminger's best work (I'd probably give that to Anatomy of a Murder or Laura), but it's still really good and I was interested almost the whole time.

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capitial 'T'

07-21-19

Originally Posted by ahwell

Angel Face

Another big surprise for me in this Hall of Fame. I've never been a huge fan of noir, but Angel Face did a good job of portraying in-depth characters and ideas.

Good to hear there's another fan of Angel Face. One of these days I'll have to do another Film Noir HoF, the first two were great fun. BTW, Preminger did like 6 film noirs I think, some of them are pretty good too.

jiraffejustin

Before man was, war waited for him.

07-21-19

Gaslight

For a long period of time during my viewing of this film, I was seriously struggling to get through it. I wasn't sure what to make of that feeling because there was nothing technically wrong with the film. That's when I realized that maybe this is how a lot of people feel when they watch torture porn or other violent films and their stomachs start to turn. I just felt really bad for beautiful Ingrid Bergman. Her ability to garner my sympathy was apparently top notch, but maybe this film didn't have to drag it on that long. And story wise there are a few coincidences in the film that seem to stretch things a little far, but overall Gaslight is a pretty solid film.

rauldc14

2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ

07-22-19

The Virgin Spring

Bergman is so masterful in his craft and he eventually deserves another film inducted into the Hall of Fame, partially why I nominated this. I didn't know this would be the land of the Giants HOF though so it's going to be a tough egg to crack.

Regardless, it's one of the most visually beautiful films that I've seen, despite the subject matters. Just look at the pictured scene above, and there's many more examples in the film. The camera shots just have me in awe. The locations are magnificent. And Birgitta Pettersson is stunning too. The rest of the cast did a real great job with the headliner being the performance of Max Von Sydow.

The story itself is rather gloomy, yes, but it seemed portrayed so devastatingly accurate to me. I loved how every character seemed to be put through some situation or scenario that faced them with an extremely tough decision on their morals and beliefs. Definitely how the film played through, it tugged at the heartstrings.

I'd also say Bergman is vastly underrated in regards to his film dialogue and screenplays. Both were pretty masterful in this. It's my favorite film of his and it's one of my favorite 100 films too.

KeyserCorleone