Dog Star Man's Film Reviews

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I like your movie reviews a lot Dog Star Man ! I've seen you in a couple of movie forums and ive finally tracked you down here! What is it that attracts you to b & w classic movies?
Yeah, I've settled here for the time being. Which forum did you initially meet me on? (Excuse me for asking, I don't mean to be rude but it's been a while and I don't remember).

As far as attraction to older films, I think it has to do with the fact that much of the Avant-Garde realm is limited to Great Britain now, (not saying there isn't an Avant-Garde elsewhere, but it's much harder to obtain the films in question as they many are limited to college Film Art groups, don't get wide distribution, and many of these Film Art directors move on to more conventional means of film making... which is all fine and good, but there is a desire to see them push the cinematic boundaries with me). Also, I don't much like contemporary cinema, for the most part, because it comes across as a blatant factory manufactured by product with little heart or intellectual concept. Another factor, (with the Tarantino, Noe, Roth, Rodrigez, etc. etc. generations), is that films seems to have become increasingly more nihilistic. Showing things like rape, violence, etc. I don't like it. To me it's a cheap hook to grab the audiences attention, and I personally just can't take that bait. I'm more into things like Romanticism, Love, and Humanism, than anything else.

And seeing your review of Faster Pussycat! and tetsuo makes me want to check them out ! Currently, im just working on my top 30 favourite movie list! i think 100 will crack my brains!
I try to compose a Top 100 films list each year. Seeing as I see more films I haven't seen before, and each year brings something new. Expect to see another films list of that caliber on here soon.

Cheers to you my good mate!
__________________
Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?

-Stan Brakhage



I dont remember where i met you b4 lol...

Anyway, i watched Tetsuo : The Iron Man, and i loved it a lot.

Here's my top 30:

1. The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959)
2. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky, 1966)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
4. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
5. The Passion of Joan of arc (Dreyor, 1928)
6. Ugetsu Monogatari (Mizoguchi, 1953)
7. Stalker (Tarkovsky, 1979)
8. Playtime (Tati, 1967)
9. Ikiru (Kurosawa, 1952)
10. Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson, 1966)
11. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
12. There Will Be Blood (P.T. Anderson, 2007)
13. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick, 1964)
14. Pickpocket (Bresson, 1959)
15. Come and See (Klimov, 1985)
16. Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1950)
17. The Third Man (Reed, 1949)
18. 12 Angry Men (Lumet, 1957)
19. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog, 1972)
20. The Apu Trilogy (Satyajit Ray, 1955-1959)
21. One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Forman, 1975)
22. Alien (Scott, 1979)
23. The Dark Knight (Noland, 2008)
24. Touch of Evil (Welles, 1958)
25. 3 Colours Trilogy (Kieślowski, 1993-1994)
26. Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
27. Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
28. Walkabout (Roeg, 1971)
29. Lord of the Rings (Jackson, 2001-2003)
30. Persona (Bergman, 1966)



Ivan's Childhood


Perhaps my favorite Tarkovsky film, Ivan's Childhood is an anti-war film set in a dream. This film also indicator, in my eyes, to the flawed theory that Bazin and his wunderkind promoted which was the progression of long takes and infinite focus to promote realism, and the ultimate rejections, that for the most part are still held today, against the editorial formulism. Why do I say this? Well for one Tarkovsky utilizes deep focus and long takes to achieve unrealistic motion. A man will walk from a far door, and without a single edit, appear in close up within mere seconds. This type disproportionate motion in the mise-en-scene is anti-realism, it is antithetical to what the realist viewed as purely concrete. Tarkovsky takes their conceptions and puts them on their head, making "realistic" mise-en-scene "unrealistic" and allowing the edit to step in and provide the moments of "realism", cutting slowly, rhythmically, and often placing his edits in "dream" sequences, containing them before they get out of hand. Ivan's Childhood is full of cinematically compelling maneuvers such as this which makes me wonder why it's not looked at more closely. Outside of this notion, Ivan's Childhood is a powerful film because it is an examination of the tolls of war. It's effect on women and children, and the loss of innocence in men, and everyone involved, during their time of service. Ivan is a tragic character, he dreams of his childhood, but they often are cut short, segwaying into nightmare, before he himself wakes up to the nightmare which is the war itself. It is a beautiful film indeed, and one that I think is greatly under appreciated. I also believe this is be best "Entry Level" Tarkovsky film out there. So if there is one people should look at first, this is definitely it.



I think you will indeed like this film W.T. I'm not a big fan of war pictures myself as a "category" but if there is a great film which fits within a "category", I'm always all-eyes upon it.



I've watched Ivan's Childhood. For me, i will rank it as a mediocre Tarkovsky work. As you know, i would consider Andrei Rublev and his later films to be better

Anyway, i think the ending scene of Ivan's Childhood is simply brilliant though. (where ivan was running on water)



Rashomon


Perhaps Kurosawa's most theoretically, and artistically, ambitious production; Rashomon visually illustrates the relativity of reality. How it achieves this is actually very mathematical, and I like to view it as such. In my reviews I often like to avoid talking about the stereotypical, "The story is...", "The actors are...", "It was good/bad because..." This is something I'm wholly uninterested in. When I watch films, my perspective is usually one of technique, theory, and composition. Most everything else gets put on the side lines more or less. Though I will mention that Rashomon takes a reality, a constant if you will, and the stories of four different people provide completely different perspectives, they are the variables, on how the constant, reality, came to be. As I mentioned before, Rashomon is a very mathematical film in a sense, and if I will indulge, I most definitely will. The effect that came to be known as the "Rashomon Effect", and the subjectivities of visual perception championed in the film, is one, in this film seen as the ultimate truth, is one based on juxtapositions between variables. These visual variables, characters, are positives-negatives which are juxtaposed with other positive-negatives, ultimately concluding to the central constant which is a metaphorical "zero". It is neither a positive or negative, it is the only existing fact, or reality, we have. In thinking about this, Rashomon poses, to me, a very interesting proposition which ultimately asks the question, "How does one achieve the effect without the juxtaposition of these variables." I've been thinking about it for awhile now, and I'm making my way up the mathematical ladder into Differential Equations to expand my mind on such cinematic theorems. But until that time, Rashomon represents, to me anyway, one of cinema's most intriguing films, and I imagine it will continue to inspire and thrill many audiences alike for years to come.



In my reviews I often like to avoid talking about the stereotypical, "The story is...", "The actors are...", "It was good/bad because..." This is something I'm wholly uninterested in. When I watch films, my perspective is usually one of technique, theory, and composition.
I think many reviews get lost in those things so it's good that you realize its not necessarily what it's about that makes it watchable or not. I haven't seen Rashomon in like a year, need to change that.



Posted on my site, enjoy:

CAMera Reviews



RocketKitKongoKit

Director: Craig Baldwin, (1986)

RocketKitKongoKit, much like its predecessor Wild Gunman, is a visual collage turned essay on the American neo-imperialist involvement in Africa. Baldwin once again utilizes montage at its finest to illustrate a bitter-sweet point of human absurdity of War in the Congo. To be specific, Zaire, where the indoctrination and overthrow of a democratic society becomes the ultimate catalyst of the end of human civilization through the mass launch of nuclear armaments. Of course, in reality this launch never occurs. Though nonetheless, Baldwin sets the stage for the tribulation which occurs in Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America, (1992). At which the point becomes ever so clear that humanity is doomed through the failures of typical human quarrel. The result there is the extinction of the planet, the result here in RocketKitKongoKit is the extinction of our species. Setting stage in five parts, the lines between fiction, and non-fiction become blurred. Especially towards the films end. As the parts press onward toward their final conclusion, Baldwin utilizes more, and more, sporatic editing; picking up the pace of both image montage and auditory narrative, mixed with vague, if not entirely irrelevant, imagery to portray a sense of the chaotic as the film reaches its ultimate conclusion. Much of these style choices are seen throughout Baldwin's work, and would be especially seen in Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America, (1992), and beyond. Once again, Baldwin becomes the Grand Master of the subliminal through the usage of montage and stock footage. Once again, the Grand Master illustrates through the screen the power of the edit and its implications on what may be seen as "useless" mise-en-scene. Here in Baldwin, the ideals and triumphs of the Formulists live on.



Also posted at my site:

CAMera Reviews



Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America

Director: Craig Baldwin, (1992)

Though I have yet to indulge in Baldwin's most recent work Mock Up On Mu, (2008), Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America resonates as his finest work with me. In Tribulation 99, it becomes clear that Baldwin has a firm grasp on his, as he puts it, "prank documentaries". Here in Tribulation, the lines become even more blurred. In the commentary on the film, he likes to state that the film takes the position of, "fake right, go left". What Baldwin means by this is simple, Baldwin himself throughout his life has been a political activist; and more or less in his own words he has stated that his films, which ferment with political drive, this same political agenda provides a layer to which the films could not exist without. Watching Tribulation 99 is like watching a 50 minute extension on final part of RocketKitKongoKit, (1986). Here the editing is extremely fast; the montage of images chosen more or less make sense on the whole to portray the immediate sense of the chaotic, while the auditory narration fluctuates in apocalyptic intensity. As Baldwin puts it, "The sum ultimately becomes much larger than the whole of the parts," once again illustrating the power of cinematic montage. Unlike Eisenstein and much of Baldwin's Soviet predecessors, Baldwin here in Tribulation seems to take the role of a paranoid schizophrenic. The ideals and events occurring in Tribulation 99 have more or less happened. But they all become fantastical conspiracy theories. Assassination attempts on Fidel Castro are thwarted because it becomes clear in the narrators mind that, "you cannot kill someone who is not alive". Tribulation is all at once jarring and humorous, this is perhaps the most advantageous and rewarding aesthetic about the film. The film becomes a question of killing you through black humor, which ultimately coats the pill of this final "tribulation". Baldwin's work continues to amaze though shock and awe, perhaps through one of the most innovative means on the film medium as I presently know it.



I'm going through Baldwin's oeuvre on my website, I hope you enjoy these:

CAMera Reviews



Sonic Outlaws

Director: Craig Baldwin, (1995)

When approaching Sonic Outlaws, I find it very atypical from the rest of Baldwin's oeuvre. Here in Sonic Outlaws, Baldwin doesn't hide behind the cinematic collage he uses to create visual-political points. Instead he dissects the very nature of his chosen art style. This may sound as a masturbatory introspection into ones self. However, this is far from the point and illustrated fact. The film is about a "culture jamming" musical group, Negativland, who utilized material from the now famous group, U2, and was sued into oblivion in the process. The film uses their story beckon to illustrate other movements throughout history that share similar plight. Art movements that date back to the 19th Century, to the Dada and Surrealist movements in the early 20th Century, which have lead to the very style that Baldwin espouses which is cinematic Situationalism; using the most radical forms of reworked plagiarism to illustrate in return the most radical forms of political commentary. He investigates other Situationalist "culture jammers" which are more-or-less artistic, but perhaps through their own virtue are more politically motivated to use the mundane to make their statements. The people in question are those such as the Barbie Liberation Organization, which switches G.I. Joe and Barbie audio voice boxes to illustrate the enforcement of gender roles on society. Other "culture jammers" are more pictorial to portray their political messages on society. Such as an underground group which tampers, and reworks, to display blatant political-subliminal messages within billboard posters across city streets. To boil it all down into a cohesive whole, Baldwin is commentating on a few things; the style of his fellow artists who take up his flag, the political introspection and questioning of the capitalistic-copyright system, the history of art and how it pertains to this system and its artists, and of course, an introspection through introspection, a view into the very nature of his own art style. Sonic Outlaws also seems much different to me in tonality. Perhaps in Baldwins other films, he was being playful, and though he doesn't like to be called "experimental", his prior films were very much so in a sense more "experimental". Here there seems to be no image wasted with the intent on creating a emotional reaction. Here, each shot pertains to the complete meaning of the thesis in question. It would seem the work has more so of a political drive than his other works, and this is probably due to the introspective nature of the work he himself is investigating. Whatever the case may be, Baldwin's film is a powerhouse of socio-political thought, and at one glance deserves discussion in its own right.



@Woman In The Dunes

Rather good review, though I wonder if there is a dual meaning in the overall idea. If the man accepts his place, he will survive with someone he can "love". However, I also look at it from this perspective. If the man does not evoke change for himself, he will be trapped in his hole forever.



Do you think he can love her? I don't know, I'd be interested in hearing why you think so. My impression (which I could be confusing with the novel, since I re-read it more recently than the last time I saw the movie) is that the dillemma is that he's trapped with a woman who is frustratingly difficult to place and emotionless (though perhaps in a more particular and peculiar way than a stereotypical "women: can't live with em, can't live without em" statement.)

As for the movie, I agree with DSM to the extent that the main character's life is pretty anonymous and meaningless, but I'm not sure if that's an intended focus or that the focus is on the man's identity or quest for meaning. When I think about moments with the most anxiety for the man, they all seem to be fairly realistic and immediate ones (when he realizes he's trapped, when he tries to escape and gets caught in quicksand...) rather than based in some sort of existential malaise. Actually if you read the novel it's quite funny in that his thoughts are incredibly frivilous and unselfconscious up until the moment he realizes he's stuck. On the other hand, the author/director do seem somewhat interested in speculating about the general human condition, I don't remember about the movie but the novel opens with a line to the effect of "without the risk of punishment, there is no joy in flight", which seems to sum up the ending of the movie pretty nicely.

Anyway, I agree with you both that it's an awesome movie.



Another review posted at my site, enjoy!:

CAMera Reviews



Spectres of the Spectrum

Director: Craig Baldwin, (1999)

Viewing the majority of Baldwin's oeuvre, there seems to be an outlying pattern that emerges; more-or-less in sequence to itself, however, I find that it still exists nonetheless. If RocketKitKongoKit was act one to the doomsday of its second act Tribulation 99, then act three would most certainly have to be its posthumous reflection on the post-apocalypse in Spectres of the Spectrum. In the world of Spectres, all forms of viable communications and energy have been privatized, and in the process, they have created a mutant world where few survive and those that do live off of "shopping malls and theme parks". Much like other Baldwin works, his films drive at a political agenda through the use of humor. However, what seems different about this work, is that it is a cinematic fusion of documentary and narrative film making with its apex in Situationalism and Dada. As I mentioned before about Tribulation being the second act to this sort of series, Spectres rises right out of the year 1999. In it, Craig Baldwin reviews to a much greater degree on the events that had led up to the beginnings, middles, and the ends, of the end. If Tribulation was at all linear in its handling of the subject, Baldwin puts this film as a "time travel" film. With narrative elements coming and going from different epochs in time leading to the post-apocalypse. It is, as I mentioned, a reflection on the post-apocalypse. Here Baldwin tries to make sense, and perhaps, come to terms as an artist on what he perceives as the ends of his political and artistic beliefs. Baldwin holds public domain in high regard, his films in more than one way reflect this, and in due course, the privatization of his life and art style becomes a threat on holy ground. Baldwin describes that this is perhaps why his latest films have a sort of "kamikaze" feel to them, especially in their conclusions, and this film is no exception. In format, Spectres is perhaps one of the most ambitious projects for Baldwin, with the precursor to this style being ˇO No Coronado!, while I have yet to indulge in this film. It is clear that Baldwin is comfortable with this integration of styles and concepts mentioned. Staying true to what he knows, but getting outside his comfort zone enough to produce new and profound art, Baldwin edits seamlessly the elements of found footage and filmed footage to create a synthesis of socio-political fervor within the spectator of the film. Baldwin is a true originator of his form, and I very much look forward to seeing Mock Up On Mu and other future projects.



CAMera Reviews



Mock Up on Mu

Director: Craig Baldwin, (2008)

After witnessing Baldwin's latest project, I am convinced without any shadow of a doubt that he has transcended his very format. I believe that any true artist aspires to reach for higher stars, ascension from those that inspired, and yes, at last, ascension for your very self. Kubrick himself at once realized this once he filmed a homage to himself with the insertion of a 2001: A Space Odyssey LP in A Clockwork Orange. Baldwin doesn't present this sort of homage, perhaps out of more humility; however, the sort of collage-based Situationalism and Dada art, combined with an almost lucid self-filmed narrative format which he had explored to degrees in Coronado and Spectres seems to have come to its most mature in Mock Up on Mu. I had posted a YouTube link above of Baldwin's own "rantings" on the project. He had stated it was an almost puppetry, and indeed it is, on many levels. It is a form of puppetry in self-made history; it is a form of puppetry in narrative characters who profess themselves to be famous, (and infamous), people in our own history; and it is a form of puppetry via voice-over narration over said characters. Mock Up would at least seem to be Baldwin's most accessible works, though it is jarring in how it presents itself to the audience, (by referencing key characters though different montage elements and almost vague mise-en-scene relationships), Baldwin manages to make these elements and relationships more palatable, rather than as chaotic as say his precursor works. What also seems to be at the heart of this film is a sense of optimism, which was lacking in his preexisting films. The film ends on the note that "love" could indeed triumph over the evils that man wrought upon itself. The film is also quite different and atypical of Baldwin in as much as the fact that this is a computer edited film, Final Cut to be precise, and it is quite apparent. But rather than having it be a drawback to the film itself, it provides the film charm, and respectability. It would seem at once that the film becomes more "Underground" as Baldwin likes to profess himself. The film is divided into thirteen segments, each segment proclaiming to the audience who the key players are of the section in question. A profound idea indeed, which keeps the audience at pace with Baldwin's fanatic, and chaotic, sense of collage and filmed footage. Though I still attest that Tribulation is Baldwin's finest work. It would now seem hard to categorize, as the film maker himself has matured to such a degree that any comparison between the young and the old is perhaps a fruitless endeavor in and of itself. I have enjoyed watching this man blossom into the film maker he has currently become, I shall hope that his future projects continue to shed a brighter and brighter light upon the cinematic society.



Nice reviews, especially Woman in the Dunes. One of the best films ever.

Also, I'll have to check out some of Craig Baldwin's work. Sounds interesting.