The 29th Hall of Fame

I think there could be some deeper cultural or religious meaning that could be lost on us. I mostly find the structure very interesting, but it leaves me with a lot of questions.

Yeah true.

I mostly found myself thinking the cop was a big dumbass for wasting his whole life in love with some girl who 20 years earlier has talked to him briefly a few times. While I could totally understand the director would feel guilty about stabbing the man in the arm. I think it would've been better if the cop had been partially parallelized from the knife attack which then ruined his life and filled him with deep seeded depression all caused by an idyllic young man (the young future director) who wanted to save the world but instead screwed up another man's life. See, I just don't get the love aspect of it, it's a meager pay off.

To copy some of what I wrote in my review:

I think this is at the heart of the film. I can't think of any questions I felt were left open which bugged me.

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Thanks for posting that SpelingError. I'm going to reply and probably have questions, but I have to get back to work like right now.

More than that, she was part of the set up! I would have loved for her to be in the film and there been an unscripted meeting between the two.

Except they couldn't do that because it didn't happen.

Except the final shot was between people who had nothing to do with the real incident. Unless of course it's just meant as representation.

I would assume Makhmalbaf and the cop forgave each other. Otherwise, Makhmalbaf wouldn't have included the ending, nor would the cop have even agreed to star in the film (unless there's some offscreen drama of the two of them not liking each other during the production of the film I'm not aware of). As we see in the film, the younger actors provide their own interpretation to the events surrounding the real life incident, so I think the ending is supposed to act as representation for what (assumingly) happened off camera.

Yea I would think much of this is true, although I also think some of the lines being blurred is part of the appeal.

Yeah, I'd say so as well. I think this choice makes up for the cop's love interest not being in the film.

Maybe it was better off, because his realization that she may have been part of it while he was watching filming was my favorite moment.

Yeah, I especially liked the way the film doled out that information, in particular. Overall, I imagine this film will be hit-or-miss amongst us, but it's always fun seeing our reactions in these threads.

I think movies like this, out of the box that make the viewer think, are the best nominations regardless of the results.

As soon as I went back to work I had an epiphany about the meaning of the film. I think the underlying theme for the Iranian audiences at the time of the film's release was: forgiveness of those who had worked for the Shaw's regime and forgiveness of those who had caused harm in the overthrown of the Shaw's regime.

That's a fair reading. I didn't think of it as a political film when I watched it, but that reading also makes sense.

I'll take links for Anomolisa and Robot if anybody has anything.

Sent!

Thanks man

I could use one at some point for Robot as well

Sent!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) -

I was looking forward to revisiting this as it was one of my favorite science fiction and horror films from my mid-to-late teen years. As expected, it held up really well, perhaps even better than I remembered it being.

Since my first viewing, I've read some essays which politicized this film's themes. They make sense as, whenever you make a horror film about the infiltration by undesirable elements, you're opening the doors to all kinds of political readings, like the post-war paranoia of totalitarianism or McCarthyism which were common around the time this film was released (since the film doesn't name what system or ideology it's criticizing, this ensures it won't lose its relevance). While these interpretations are nice though, I prefer to just focus on how tense and scary it is.

The film successfully captures the fear of everyone around you acting different and not being able to do anything about it. This is the kind of uneasiness I feel whenever someone I think I know and trust suddenly starts revealing their true colors. This often comes without warning and, the more time I spend around them, the more pronounced their behavior gets. When this happens, I often sense there's nothing I can do about the situation as bringing this up might worsen the issue. Having been around several, let's just say, unpleasant people since the first time I watched the film, I found its themes far more resonant this time around. Coupled with the ways the film subtly reveals which characters aren't who they say they are and how the aliens hide what they're doing pretty well gives this theme that extra bit of resonance which clinches its status as a great film (while I'm a fan of the '78 remake, I felt it faltered in this regard since the aliens were more conspicuous about their intentions in that film).

I also found some of the alien effects really memorable. The shots of the truckloads of pods are unsettling and the hatching scene sent chills down my spine since it was far more creepy than I remembered it being. Certain scenes being shot at an angle was another nice touch to the film since it was done sparingly enough to prevent it from feeling overused.

As for any criticisms, I can't think of anything which bugged me. Some people took issue with the film's narration, but since what we're watching is a frame narrative, I'd say it suits the film just fine. I've also seen some criticism over the ending, but while I would've enjoyed the film just fine if it ended the way Siegel had intended, I found the studio's enforced final scene effective as well, just for a different reason.

As I said, I had really fond memories of this film when I first watched it and this viewing solidified it as one of my favorite genre films.

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