15th Hall of Fame

Hey Vamp, the Deadline is April 6th, this is a bit shorter than most Hofs. Still just about a month left. There are some great noms this time around, happy movie watching!

Burning the candle at both ends are we, @SilentVamp? You little hell raiser, you


I've got some serious watching to do myself. Finished Glory - wonderful revisit, that, and picking up In The Mood, Station and Hedwig from the library today

I got a little bit of L'Avventura left to watch. I'll have a review by Monday.

Out of the Blue

Didn’t really like this at all. It looked cheap and nasty. The sound is rubbish. And some of the acting was bad. Most of this film isn’t really about much, and what it is about isn’t very nice.

The use of Elvis songs is interesting. The scenes with Cebe at the punk gig are OK. I’d have been interested in more of that rather than about Cebe escaping (or not) from a succession of creepy bastards who want to molest her. Apparently her small town is just full of creeps.

I like the way Cebe puts on the hat and pretends to play the drums while her parents are fighting. I don’t know that this has much to say about punk really, it’s just escapism for Cebe and if anything the film seems to be throwing what might at the time have seemed like a fairly shocking subculture into relief against the real shocking awfulness of daily life amongst junkies and alcoholic rapists.

Unlike some of you, I didn’t hate her character. I think I hated pretty much everyone else, from her hysterical junkie mother to creepy Charlie, but especially Don. He shows no remorse for the accident. He should have rotted in jail for longer than five years the stupid pisshead paedo.

The end is just disturbing and horrible.

(Although, disco does suck.)

I kind of feel that it worked for you with the strong reaction you have.

If the point of the film is just to shock and anger you, then maybe it did.

But was it effective, or just exploitative?

I do feel bad when I don't like people's HoF nominations! It wasn't a complete dead loss, I just didn't enjoy watching it at all and didn't think it was particularly well made.

I knew it would be divisive. It's just that kind of movie.

For me it was effective. I think the films turn is one of the most unexpected, soul-destroying things i've ever seen. The first scene with Hopper is this very intense prison visit where Cabe displays strong feelings of love for her father, she puts on a dress and wears makeup something that's completely against her nature. That scene makes it seem like her problems stem from her father not being around and from his demeanour that he made an awful mistake that he regrets and is paying for. I think it was easy to think this would be about destructive teenage rebellion playing out and coming to a happy conclusion when she is reunited with him which of course the complete opposite happens. Thing is from what i've heard this sort of realtionship is consistent with certain abuse victims, particularly victims of parental abuse who form a particularly strong relationship to their abuser, almost like their self-worth is tied to them. Cabe coming of age and realizing her idea of him is a lie and taking the power back in the most vicious way is horrible to watch but to me it was extremely powerful. I think this was all earned and arguably even logically sound. Your response is completely understandable, i think people could come out with the same reaction and still not agree on whether they liked it or not, it's just one of those films. I've heard it described as a "burn the world" film and i think that's a perfect description, so i think it would have been a cop-out if this didn't end on a heavy/nasty note.

Also while you aren't wrong about the way it was made and it was probably incidental i think that bad quality VCR feeling to the film couldn't suit it better. It feels like you're watching some underground banned film haha.

Agree with every word and I thought it was going to go in the direction of a revenge film for the accident.

Oh yeah, i could see thinking it was going that way they even have Hopper meet one of the victims parents making it seem like that was a possibility very far into the film. I think the films worth is mainly in there's not many like it from what i'm aware at least, films with a very clear direction towards an uplifting (or tragic if the revenge thing played out, maybe like American History X's ending with Hopper turning a new leaf and still being brutally punished for it) ending open and it completely avoids it to make its audience utterly disgusted and destroyed.

Your observation of Cebe wearing a dress and make-up has me wanting to re-consider that scene, as I felt the acting was awkward...I didn't even notice that. You're a good SOB, Camo!

She came across uncomfortable and awkward to me because she wasn't herself in that moment but she was willing to make that sacrifice for the sugar-coated lie of a memory she had of her father. That's what made the whole thing so devastating to me, it wasn't a film about a girl going through a troubling teenage phase that so many do, it was about a girl shedding her innocence and realizing the world is BS.

Camo's understanding of the picture fits mine perfectly. Well worth reading!

Unlike other people here, I do actually think it's a well made film, by the way. Audiovisually speaking.

__________________
Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

The Elephant Man is the touching story of John Merrick who suffers from a debilitating bone disease, the movie is part drama and part horror film. The black and white cinematography gives it an aged quality as does choosing character actors to fill out the film.

It's likely one of the most cohesive David Lynch films, which is a good thing but I still would have liked a bit more of consistency. For long stretches of the film I found rather dull, the movie runs two hours but it feels like three. I had to actually take an intermission at one point just to wake up because I was dozing off. But when you do get to the more dramatic scenes they work very well.

After watching Out of the Blue and another couple of films recently, I was wondering - what is the easiest and most difficult emotion for a film to produce? Is it easier to provoke disgust simply by showing something disgusting? Harder (depending on the type of viewer) to provoke disgust for the subject matter but still admiration for the film.

I watched a romantic movie recently and didn't feel anything much about the romance - is that a difficult genre to do well, or does it depend on the viewer? Do some people get into romances more readily? Is it difficult to make an effective horror movie, or is it that horror buffs don't scare easily? Some people cry easily at movies, some rarely cry and take it as a mark of a movie's effectiveness if they do while some people hate to be 'emotionally manipulated'.

I'm not sure there are any answers, I was just musing.

I liked Out of the Blue more than you did, but you have valid points about the film. I was turned off by the two 'peep show' scenes. I'm sure you know which ones I mean. The subject matter of the scenes did move the narrative forward, but...it was like the director Dennis Hopper wanted to show the audience a teen girl in pseudo forced sex scenes of the most disturbing nature. I would have liked the film better if those two scenes had been shot less graphical.

That's a really great question. While emotional responses are going to be subjective, I think that some things tend to be more divisive than others, and thus harder to "get right". Comedies seem to suffer from that pretty often, since not all brands of humour work for everyone.

Romance very rarely works for me, but both my room mates can easily get lost in the sentimentality of it. I also don't find relationship drama to be even slightly engaging. There's definitely a sizeable audience for it though, so I'm probably just in the heartless minority haha.

__________________

I've always thought comedy and romance were the most subjective.

Romance does work for me, but some times more than other times and it's difficult to pin down why or why not.

Fear is the most difficult for me, i haven't been properly scared by a film since i was 9 or something not counting momentarily being caught off guard by a jumpscare occasionally. I rarely cry at movies but plenty make me sad. Romance and laughter are very hit and miss it usually depends on the quality of the film, although i'd say those two have my most guilty pleasures also.

In the Mood For Love



Some people have expressed that they were expecting more passion. But for me, it’s not as much about lust as it is about loneliness. There are signifiers of sex all around, not just the spouses who are having an affair but Mr Chow’s friend whose lost his money at a whorehouse; Mrs Chan’s boss who is carrying on an affair, leaving her to ring his wife to say he won’t be back; the red curtains of the hotel. I actually really liked that the central love story was restrained and largely unspoken in the midst of all this. It reminded me of other similar love stories I enjoyed like Lost in Translation and Brief Encounter. Restraint is underrated.

I like that things are seen sometimes at a distance, glimpsed through doorways and at odd angles. It expresses what the characters know or don’t know about each other, everything only partially understood and communicated, what we don’t know about them (there are secrets running underneath what we see on screen), but also how confined they are by their marriages, jobs, living situations, people’s assumptions. The past glimpsed through dusty windowpanes, as the ending quote says.

To make a link between this and another of the nominated films, the way we don’t really see the respective spouses reminded me a bit of Rebecca, in which Rebecca herself is an unseen presence. Mr Chan and Mrs Chow are glimpsed, but conspicuous by their absence.

The acting is good, especially from Tony Leung, his face is so expressive but in a dignified, subtle, melancholy sort of way. Partly through acting and partly through lighting, the two leads seem to light up when they see each other.

The music was a major part of the film for me as well.

What I really like most about this film is the way it looks: the colours above all, but also the lighting, the props and set decoration, the slightly grainy look to it which gives the impression of the time and place. And all the rain. I was less taken with some of the quirkier aspects of the direction this time around, they seem very of the time.

A question for discussion: do you think they ever did consummate their love? Is the boy with her at the end his son?

I thought it definitely was, especially coming so close after the “nothing from that era exists anymore” quote. But if it is, does Mr Chow know? Is that his secret?

And how does the development of their relationship fit in with the quote at the beginning of the film?

“It is a restless moment. She has kept her head lowered... to give him a chance to come closer. But he could not, for lack of courage. She turns and walks away.”

Is it he who lacks courage, or her? Or both? Or neither?