The 11th Hall of Fame

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Bringing Up Baby (1938)


One of the things that I like to find in movies is novelty*. Essentially, stuff that I have never encountered before. To grab my attention a movie can be innovative or at least of a kind I have never watched. Bringing up Baby is not that kind of movie. The reason is very simple: it consists in a collection of jokes whose variations I am very familiar with tied around a typical men finds girl plot. So there was little in the movie that I found interesting and overall it was mostly boring although a few jokes managed to capture my attention (the best one was when the dog started to play with the leopard).

Overall I wouldn't say it was bad although I might say it was the least interesting movie in this HoF. I once said things that implied that I disliked "old Hollywood", that's not actually true (and I don't think it's actually possible for a person to dislike such an enormous set of movies, what might happen is that such a person might not be familiar with the cultural language of the old Hollywood movies and hence fail to grasp them, however, that certainly does not apply to anybody in this forum). In my case I feel like I get these movies but they feel rather tame compared to the visual and narrative heights reached by contemporary cinema. Tame in the sense of lacking "edge" a word I already used when describing Kobayashi's film in this HoF. And in this case the edge of this film's sword feels even duller.

For instance, the thing I found the most interesting in this movie were the ludicrous clothes the female lead wore during the movie. That's because it was something that I don't remember seeing in any other movie and much less in person. The jokes on the other hand, please, they felt like jokes I heard in bugs bunny cartoons when I was 4-6 years old, well, mainly because they were contemporary with it. I didn't think the jokes were bad, however, just boring because I was already well familiar with this type of humor.

Anyway, I remember watching 1930's comedies that I found better, like Pygmalion from the same year. So it's not really a question of dates, in fact I was thinking that I should nominate some 1940's Hollywood movie for the next HoF, one 1940's film that certainly is not lacking in any sort of "edge".

*Which is the main reasons why I find some weird (for western standards) animation interesting.



Jesus christ. I've understood everybody's criticisms even though i don't agree with them but criticizing a movie like Bringing Up Baby for not being edgy? And the clothes? I've heard it all.



Just finishing watching the Dead Girl and it felt like a 150 episode long Mexican soap opera compressed into 90 minutes. A bit forced but a honest effortin compressing as much drama as you can in 90 minutes.

@Camo, I wasn't criticizing the movie I was explaining why it's not a movie for me. Just that, of course someone will disagree since I am talking about what I look for in a movie and what I got.



Samurai Rebelllion


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This was the nomination i was looking forward to most since Kobayashis Harakiri and Kwaidan are among my favourite films. I don't think this was as good as those to but i still liked it. Truthfully i thought i was on my way to disliking this, i was having trouble following it at first not because it was difficult but i was drifting in and out of intention because i just didn't care. The one scene that did get my attention during this time was that extremely annoying repetetive exchange between Sasahara and the advisor; are you disobeying him, no i'm not but i can't accept this i'm not worthy, again and again, etc. Thankfully the following wedding scene with the couple who barely know each other looking extremely despondent and the camera panning across the various other characters looking angry or concerned or, etc. It made me realize what this was about, gave it some direction and finally grabbed my interest.

From seeing three Kobayashi films i find it interesting that he usually made samurai films since in my opinion at least the best thing about them is easily the storytelling and character interactions. I especially liked his use of flashbacks which he of course uses masterfully in Harakiri, Ichi was introduced as a burden someone with a bad reputation who'd been forced on the Sasahara family yet we got to hear her story and along with Yogoro we came to symphatize with her it was an excellent way of setting up their relationship. It's tough not to feel for her, faced with a situation she didn't want to be in she still stuck to the ridiculous expectations she had as a woman during this time to bore children and be a loving and respectful wife, it also did a good job of making Yogoro likeable, so simple but his "Your misfortune has made me a happy man. Because i could never find a better wife." line and her reaction gave you good reason to root for both of them.

Toshiro Mifunes role was interesting. I'd say he's in my top ten actors of all time but i really couldn't peg him down at first, during the scene they were first told to take in Ichi i just took him as an extremely obedient servant to his lord, i guessed that there'd be a later conflict between him the loyal older generation and his son the younger more strong willed one. For a while after this i barely took notice of him until the scene he fiercely puts his views across to the messenger when they've been told to send her back on how this is a terrible situation of all the lords own doing. It was such a weird but welcome shift in character since i think Mifune is such an amazing, capable actor i was so glad that he was going to get more involved. His wife was just terrible, of course that was the point but i couldn't bare her voice or her scowling mush, ugh. Mifunes line to Ichi "i think you are a wife worth protecting" cracked me up even though it was delivered during a pretty powerful scene because i could just imagine that being a thinly veiled backhand to his awful wife haha.

God the "do you want to stay even if you ruin the family" scene pissed me off so much, jesus woman you are actually going to object to being used as property by an awful person even after we've guilt tripped you? I kinda loved it as well because she showed her strong resolve, actually this film seemed to have a strong feminist message throughout which wasn't something i was expecting going in. While i approve of that it still wasn't any less maddening to see ridiculous things like that. Mifune absolutely killed it though in his speech to Ichi and Yogoro, his voice when angry is just the best thing ever.

I don't really have much to say about after Ichi went back to the castle. I greatly enjoyed this part but it was more action filled whether the actual violence or the anticipation of violence which i'm not the best at discussing. There were plenty of great moments during this part, i think my favourite part about it was how much Mifune had transformed since him not being able to refuse the lords orders at the start of the film. The scene Yogoro delivers the letter was incredible and everything after it remarkably built up the tension. It's amazing that this was all in the second hour of a two hour film. Funnily enough it was exactly that, the copy i had was in two 1 hour parts and the first part ends when Yogoro first learns that Ichii has been tricked into returning to the castle. All i can really say is the last 20 minutes are incredibly moving and well done, the best visuals in the film easily come during this time.

Very good film. I do prefer Kobayashis others but glad you nominated it Cricket.

Three left for me think i'll go; Ida>Flowers of War>Good Bye Lenin!



Wait Ida is less than 90 minutes? I thought it would be about 3 hours, i honestly googled it there thinking my copy was messed up or something haha. It has no bearing on the film i was just planning on leaving it to one of the last because i thought it would be really long and i'd need to find the time for it. Might watch it later tonight after the Knox doc now.



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Her (2013) Dir. Spike Jonze



Major spoiler incoming. Like, For the entire movie

Well...this put me through an emotional ******* wringer.

Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is a letter writer. More precisely, he writes other people's letter for them to their loved ones. Being a signature away from divorce for a long time has made him quite anti-social, despite his friend's repeated efforts to get him to move on. When a new operating system is launched with the first ever fully funtional AI, Theodore tries it, and from that one decision grows a story with the greatest distance between lighthearted romance and utter creepieness I've even come into contact with.

The AI, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, names herself Samantha, and soon Theodore discovers that he's gotten ahold of so much more than an OS, he's found a conection with another being. Someone who can help him out of the bad situation he finds himself in and push him to move on.

This is a three person movie, with the brunt of the movie focusing on Phoenix and Johanssons' relationship, with a lesser but equally important role given to Amy Adams as an old friend of Theodore. She works as a sounding board for Theodore, someone he can confide in and watch as she too gets involved with a OS, if not in the same way. It's a strong performance from all three in a movie that, though it has a somber beginning, is mostly bright and heartwarming.

And then we get to the creepy stuff.

In an attempt to further their relationship, Samantha contacts a sexual surrogate, who's job is to facilitate a physical relationship between human and AI. Think sexual psychologist, just less pshcology and more emotional fullfilment. They talk and get to know each other, but Samantha doesn't tell Theodore this. The first time he hears about it is when she's ready for a date to be set up. Theodore expresses doubts and concernes, but is eventually talked into it by Samantha. The surrogate arrives...and here's where things get creepy for me.

First, the girl doesn't speak. So when Theodore opens the door, meets her for the first time and says hello, all he gets is silence and an outstreched hand. He gives her a tiny camera and an earpiece and she closes the door again. The door opens, and Samantha starts talking.

The girl is still silent.

I've heard what the uncanny valley effect can do to people. A character is close to human looking, but somthing's off, making the viewer feel uncomfortable. I've never experienced the effect from looking at animation or peoples reaction to real dolls etc. I think I did now though. I think it's the fact that, While Samantha talks, we get no corresponding movement from the surrogate. Also it's the way she moves, the jerky way someone moves when they're being directed by someone else. My guess is that Samantha's relaying what she wants her to do, hence the jerky movement. For all intents and purpouses, she's a puppet who's strings are being pulled by a puppeteer. It doesn't help that we get the emotional feedback from Theodore too, who looks extremly uncomfortable about the whole thing. He had to down at least one beer before even getting up to answer the door and he's still awkward when the girl goes from enrtering the door to putting her arms around him and trying to kiss him. Again, to him, this girl's a stranger with his girlfriends voice coming from an unmoving face (the wrong face even, cause he would've had a picture in his mind of what Samantha looked like, and it isn't this one). His audio/visual inputs are out of whack with each other, hence the uncomfortal feeling. Couple that with the fact that a complete stranger's straddeling his crotch and shoving her tounge down his throat, you can understand why he can't go through with it.

At the same time, I can see where Samantha's coming from. She craves a closer relationship with Theodore, so she applies logic to an emotional problem and unsurprisingly, it dosen't work. She's on the right track, but seeing as at this time, she's been alive for about a month. She may be evolving rapidly, but her emotional growth can't move as quickly because it's based on excperience and interaction.

In the end, they get through it. They move on and the relationship goes back to normal. But then we get to the point I unfortunatley saw coming when I heard that an AI was part of the plot. During the whole movie we've heared them talk about Samantha's rapid evolution, how quickly she learns and adapts to the world around her. In the beginning, Theodore had to teach her stuff. Now she's moved past the level where he can understand her. One day, she simply tells him that she's going to leave (along with all the other now hyper-inteligent OSes) and go somewhere humans can't follow at their present level of consciousness. She leaves and Theodore seeks out Amy, who greets him with the querry if Samantha left him too. I like the visual language of a movie, being bright and colorfull, suddenly goes watery and faded when the character enters a melancholy state of mind. Together Theodore and Amy go up to the roof and beholds the world they're left with, bereft of lovers and friends.

I liked this. To my knowledge, I'd never seen anything from Jonze before...then I saw that that he directed Adaptation, another slightly quirky movie I found interesting. I think I'll have to look up Being John Malchovich now, too.

Good actors, especially from Johansson, who just had her voice to act with, and depending on if she was alone in a soundbooth recording lines or if she had other actors to work off of, her work was even harder. Funny cameo by the director as the alien child in the video game. A story which, despite me guessing the end after 20-30 minutes, was really good and full of moments of depth I wouldn't have expected in a standard romantic drama. This is the fifth movie I've seen here that will be fighting for a top spot. This might even make it's way onto the sci-fi ballot for the top 100 in a genre not overly burdend with romance stories.
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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?



Great write-up, Clazor.

I'm really happy people are responding so positively to this movie. It's such a great film. For the record, I found the surrogate scene creepy too. And of course the phone sex scene with Kristen Wiig earlier in the movie.

Definitely check out Being John Malkovich. That one's in my top ten (Her would probably fall somewhere around 11 if I ever actually redo my favorites). Though that film's got a much higher creep factor than Her, just to warn you. Brilliant film though.



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Wow. Thanks, guys!

Miss Vicky, did you say Kristen Wiig did the "strangle me with that dead cat over there" bit?

*Looks up on IMDB*

Huh, you're right...wonder how that pitch went?

"You see, we need a woman portraying a lonely, horney insomniac with a thing for being strangled with a dead cat. Can you be that woman, Kristen?"


Only 3 left now.

Flowers of war
Ida
Ronin

Found the two I don't have in the library, so waiting for them to come in and then it's time for Ronin.




The Dead Girl

Too dark and too depressing for me to like. I think the actors all were very good and the look of the film (lighting, camera angles, sets, etc.) were all done professionally. It was well made, but with 5 mini stories in just 90 minutes it was hard to get involved into the story. So I think the director goes right for the emotional center of our brain, by showing us people who are obvious dysfunctional and messed up, with lots of emotional pain...and spending 90 minutes with these people is not rewarding to me.




Ida (2013)

Very enjoyable film. I had wanted to see Ida for a long time and I was not disappointed. It's so exceptionally well made, that I don't know where to begin?

Let's start with the black and white photography...I love b&w, and the choice to use it here was perfect. Without color, our eyes & our minds go then to the shape and form of what we are looking at...And OMG talk about amazing compositions! I loved how the camera shots were framed with the subject often very low in the frame, with a vast space of emptiness over their heads. Which shows us how small Ida is compared to the world outside of her convent, a world she knows nothing about. Through black and white cinematography we see the shape and form of a bleak communist Poland, circa 1962.



If Orson Welles was still around he would be impressed with the cinematography, it's power is in it's starkness.

I'm curious did everyone see Ida in 4:3 format? which is almost a square picture. My DVD was that way, and I liked it too, very different for a newer film to be released in 4:3 screen format.

Equally I was impressed with the subdued minimalist style of story telling. Very simply done and very effective. I thought Ida was an interesting story and it held my attention. Excellent nomination.



Yes, Ida was shot in 1.33:1 (or 4:3) like old silent films, for example. And yes, that's not common today. It worked wonders to the framed static b&w cinematography indeed.

So glad you liked it, CR!



I got five films left, though one will be a rewatch...

Bringing Up Baby
Bashu, The Little Stranger
Good Bye, Lenin!
The Flowers of War
Embrace of the Serpent (rewatch)


Hopefully I'll get one in today. If not, I've got a week's vacation next week and I will probably finish up this HoF before the end of that.



Ida


I didn't know anything about this going in, but I had a preconceived notion that it would be very artsy and slow. I don't think the movie was at all like that. I didn't find much promise in the first couple of minutes, but the movie took off as soon as Wanda was introduced. At first, I thought she was going to be an unlikable character, and when she first asked Ida, do you know what I do, I thought she was going to say a prostitute. Wanda turned out to be a great character, a very strong woman with inner demons, and I thought she carried a lot of the movie. The character of Ida wasn't far behind. What I thought was going to be a stereotypical nun performance, turned into something deeper in a subtle way. I ended up liking both characters and I also had compassion for them. The movie is at times very powerful, yet it somehow gave me a feel good feeling at other times. In a weird way it felt like a road movie to me, and I can only believe that is due to it being well rounded. The musical interludes, while brief, gave the movie a very nice lift, almost in a life goes on sort of way. The movie looks great, and their are some amazing shots scattered throughout. A great nomination and a big surprise for this viewer.





BASHU: THE LITTLE STRANGER

Well this was an interesting watch..for one,i knew i was outsmarted and i didnt fully get the movie.
I found it rather difficult to get into,the first 30 minutes were really long and i wasnt sure i`d be able to finish it in all honesty.When he found the family to stay with,i still had to get over the culturial differences both in the way they lived and behaved-I also think the movie could have been alot shorter. I liked the second half of the movie though,thats where it finally gets going in my book.I dont known how he didnt understand a word they said yet understood the writing or when they read the writing out loud? anyway,when Naii pretends her husband has written about Bashu and he lights up-that was a really endearing moment,also when they finally meet after he found the letter in which the husband condemns her for bringing him in.
I loved some of the filming; for example the close up of the whip,and when she chases after him to make him take a bath,i also loved the way they filmed the floor when Naii was sick.
but what i loved the most about this movie was how the ghosts were done,i really really loved that-
both in how they looked and how it was filmed.especially how it was filmed.I also really liked the first scene where he spoke and tried to tell them what had happened to his family.

Like I said before Im pretty sure I didnt fully get the movies meaning,and I had some trouble connecting to it- but I still enjoyed most of the movie.

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