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chicagofrog's Avatar
history *is* moralizing
Everything Is Illuminated, 2005, wow wow, just as good, even if slightly different (but true to the main atmosphere) as Jonathan Foer's very very great novel (i read about 2 years ago and recommend strongly!!) (btw, the next one is even better - i'm looking forward to see the movie made), and Eugene Hutz rules! Elijah Wood's real good too as "Jonfen" and Laryssa Lauret was a discovery
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The People's Republic of Clogher
Pavee Lackeen The Traveller Girl (2005, Perry Ogden)

3/5

A raw, unsympathetic portrayal of a family of Travellers living in caravans near Dublin docks, Pavee Lackeen is filmed in a semi-documentary style and reminds me of early, Poor Cow era, Ken Loach.

Shoplifting, solvent abuse, raiding rubbish piles for clothes and tangles with both police and local council officials make up the daily lives of Rose and her family of 10. Rose drinks, smokes too much, can't read or write and allows her kids too much free rein. She's also fiercely proud.

The portrait painted is not flattering, and certainly not typical - but it's life. The film itself is maybe too unstructured to be great but I found it compulsive viewing. No picture postcard, patronising Paddywhackery here.

The central family are played by real travellers and we're not gonna see much 'acting', though young Winnie Maughan, the girl of the title, has an amazing screen presence. The look in her eyes is 10 going on 50...

She's a star in the making but I doubt if circumstances will ever allow Winnie to act again. Here's hoping.

I've done a lot of business with the Travelling community in my time and find people's stereotypes of them very sad and unflattering. They're Ireland's oldest and least appreciated Ethnic Minority, after all...

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A system of cells interlinked
Bound (Wachowskis, 1996) - Um, gulp.

My girlfriend had to keep me at bay with a kitchen knife after I watched this one...

The Bourne Supremecy (Greengrass, 2004) - Not a huge fan of the first film, this was a pleasant surprise on both a technical and narrative level. I found myself really digging this film, Damon included, which is odd. Nice work Greengrass.
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Originally Posted by Ezikiel
Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen - 1992)

Hi there... ...haven't seen you around much lately....
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I am having a nervous breakdance
Originally Posted by Tacitus
Pavee Lackeen The Traveller Girl (2005, Perry Ogden)

3/5

A raw, unsympathetic portrayal of a family of Travellers living in caravans near Dublin docks, Pavee Lackeen is filmed in a semi-documentary style and reminds me of early, Poor Cow era, Ken Loach.

Shoplifting, solvent abuse, raiding rubbish piles for clothes and tangles with both police and local council officials make up the daily lives of Rose and her family of 10. Rose drinks, smokes too much, can't read or write and allows her kids too much free rein. She's also fiercely proud.

The portrait painted is not flattering, and certainly not typical - but it's life. The film itself is maybe too unstructured to be great but I found it compulsive viewing. No picture postcard, patronising Paddywhackery here.

The central family are played by real travellers and we're not gonna see much 'acting', though young Winnie Maughan, the girl of the title, has an amazing screen presence. The look in her eyes is 10 going on 50...

She's a star in the making but I doubt if circumstances will ever allow Winnie to act again. Here's hoping.

I've done a lot of business with the Travelling community in my time and find people's stereotypes of them very sad and unflattering. They're Ireland's oldest and least appreciated Ethnic Minority, after all...


I would like to see that film.

I've always been curious about the Traveller community. I have never really understood what differs them from other Irishmen on a strictly ethnical level. Where do the roots come from? Are they not celts?

Touching the Void (2003 - Kevin Macdonald)

Really hair-raising drama documentary about two extreme mountain climbers who tried to climb a really tough Peruan mountain in 1987 "alpine style" (i.e. pretty ****ing dangerous). One of the men broke his leg severely on their way down and eventually his buddy had to cut him lose from the rope that was keeping them together, and then hell began.... It's quite impressive when that survival instinct kicks in - and how the spark never dies in some people....


Le Salaire de la peur - The Wages of Fear (1953 - Henri-Georges Clouzot)

I bought this nice DVD edition a few weeks back and finally watched it again the other night. It's one of my favourite films. I remember we had to watch it in class at University and I wasn't that eager to see it - and was blown away. Racism, greed, courage, cowardice, social injustice, desperation.... Even though the exciting story is the centre of attention, the film is really about those things.

Four guys drive two trucks loaded with nitroglycerine in Venezuela. They work for a big cynical oil company and they are desperate for the money which will help them get out of this hell hole. The mission is extremely dangerous but they litterally walk over bodies to earn the wages of fear. It's a fantatstic film....
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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but
now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Originally Posted by Piddzilla
I would like to see that film.

I've always been curious about the Traveller community. I have never really understood what differs them from other Irishmen on a strictly ethnical level. Where do the roots come from? Are they not celts?
I'm no expert but I understand that the Travellers have been recorded as a 'race' in Ireland since pre-Christian times. They've set themselves apart as a distinctive Ethnic group relatively recently (and they bare no relation to conventional 'Gypsies' who hail from central Europe and beyond).

They're as much of a distinct ethnic body as the Ulster Scots in the North in that they have their own language and customs which differ from the vast majority of the country.

There's an interesting little article here.



The Squid and the Whale - what a little gem.
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there's a frog in my snake oil
Rififi - Definitely deserves its classic status. All three acts (the planning, famed 'silent' heist, and messy revenge aftermath) have some classy moments and periods of sustained tension.

The Arrow R2 DVD has some decent chatter with Dassin n'all. His insights into how the McCarthy blacklisting affected him, others, and even the Rififi script are well worth catching.
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chicagofrog's Avatar
history *is* moralizing
A Tale Of Two Sisters, Korea 2003, for the third time, i begin to get all the subtleties little by little... and still find it soo damned beautiful, each pic could be made a poster...



I am having a nervous breakdance
High Noon (1952 - Fred Zinnermann)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962 - John Ford)

I decided to watch two real Western classics, I think for the first time (I might have watched them with my dad as a kid, I can't remember).

They are both really great films. High Noon is next to flawless but things like the acting style felt a bit unmodern. A bit pompous, sometimes... Other than that, the story and how it was being set in real time, the reasons for the actions of the characters and so on... Brilliant. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is very good too. You can notice that there is ten years between the two films in terms of acting style, language (both spoken language and body language) and the way violence is depicted.

There is also a difference in the underlying theme of the two different films. While High Noon is about the typical Western sheriff, the lone individual stepping up and taking his responsibility, despite his fear, to protect the people against the gang of villains, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance seems to be illustrating the importance of the collective, the state and the nation. In "Liberty" Tom Doniphon, the John Wayne character, symbolizes the old Western hero; his time is up and in comes Rance Stoddard, the lawyer, the congressman and US Senator, a man of the people. That's the kind of man that the future is being built on. But Doniphon in some way gets the last word. He was the one who really shot Liberty Valance. He was the true Western legend that made progress possible and sent Stoddard to Washington; Stoddard who built his career on people's belief that he was the one who shot Liberty Valance.

I think it's interesting to see this kind of shift in themes and especially put against the different times in which these films were produced: High Noon in the Eisenhower era and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in the Kennedy era. I know it is to read too much into movies but it's always fun to let cinema illustrate the current political climate or tradition of which they historically belong to. Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) in High Noon represents the kind of hero that, as in many other Westerns, symbolizes the President and the people's reliance on The Great Leader and that he will protect them. Rance Stoddard, on the other hand, is more the "don't ask what the Country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country" kind of hero. He will lead, but everybody are in this together and it's the responsibility of the people to elect capable political leaders.

Yeah well, I could go on and on about this....



In Soviet America, you sue MPAA!
Originally Posted by ash_is_the_gal
froggie, ive been wanting to see this... glad you liked it, i will add it to my list!
No!!! I've learned over time that the frog has an unusual soft spot for this film. My advice, should you still want to see the movie, turn it off when it feels like it should end, otherwise you're wasting your time and will just be monumentally dissapointed at how incoherent it becomes.
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chicagofrog's Avatar
history *is* moralizing
Peter is real cold-hearted
but each MoFo should make his/her own opinion on the movies, doesn't he think so?
plus my spot are not so soft!



I'm not old, you're just 12.
The Producers (2005). So very funny. I loved Nathan Lane's over the top acting, and Will Ferrell as a singing, dancing Nazi playwrite, and well just about everything about the film. It's so good-natured that even the most offensive jokes in it don't seem hostile. My only complaint is the ending, which just goes on too long, and isn't as funny as the ending to the original Gene Wilder/Zero Mostel classic.
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