April 08, 2007

• Also that was meant to have "Curious George" prefixed... I -know- I put it on there but it seems it got stripped out.
• As mentioned previously,I happened upon a 1998 movie on cable a month ago called Happiness. I had never heard of it before, but because the cast included some of my favorite scene-stealers (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lara Flynn Boyle, other people with three names) I decided to watch. Holy shit. From the first scene (featuring Jon Lovitz, of all people) you're hooked and know you must watch the entire film without interruption. It turns out it is all about the intermingling of related characters with a million dark angles, the darkest of which is pedophilic rape. It is hard to say much more without revealing spoilers, but if you want to see a mesmerizing train wreck, rent this film.
• Look up Brick, it's a pretty good noir indie film from a couple years back. If you're in the mood for a laugh and you've ever wondered what a sword fight between Buddy Holly and Slash from Guns n Roses would be like, rent Six String Samurai.
• Down By Law "I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM!" is one of my favorite moments in film. My Neighbor Totoro has been mentioned on this site a few times, but bears repeating. Blood Simple. The Coen brothers' style is evident in their very first film. More to follow.
• Taste is subjective, but here are a few of my favorites. A Tale of Two Sisters is a beautiful, chilling, intelligent Korean horror flick from a few years back. It's the kind of movie you watch, sit there for a bit with your mind quietly blown, and then rewatch in order to understand what really happened. Ravenous is like Cannibal: The Musical (also recommended), except without the musical bit. Darkly funny, with some nicely chilling parts. Last Life in the Universe is a Thai romance that would probably appeal to anybody who enjoyed Lost in Translation for any reason besides OMGJAPAN!!1!eleven! I'm sure I could think of more, but I don't have my movie collection handy at the moment.
• OMG double Curious George!!1!
• I rented Fando y Lis from Netflix on a total whim and absolutely loved it. But it is a surrealist film (Spanish, subtitles, but not much speech, really) and if that isn't your bag, you won't like it. (I'm not a huge experimental film fan - I couldn't get through Švankmajer's 'Alice' - but my partner won't watch them at all.) On a totally different note, Scotland, PA was fun, as was Anatomie(German, Eng subtitles.) I think you can tell I like my films with copious amounts of fake blood.
• I got tons of recommendations but what kind of films do you like Rolypolyman?
• I guess I owe an answer... my tastes are kind of eccentric and vary a bit. Not very well organized but here goes: * Logan's Run -- I weep at how cheesy it looks these days, but man, what a concept, especially in the 1970s. This film was partly responsible for putting me into the sciences. * The Shining -- What can I say. * Dr Strangelove -- Enough said. * Downfall -- Great recently-made WWII film. * Waiting -- Funny stuff. * All Quiet on the Western Front -- Good war classic. * Ju-On (the Japanese version) -- Probably one of the creepiest movies I've seen in a few years... well-done for a low-budget flick. * Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears -- One of my favorite foreign films. Also I have to give a polite nod to Spielberg's War of the Worlds. It was scary and bleak, but I have to keep it off my list due to the usual Hollywood schmaltz that was dumped into the film.
• I recently rewatched Logan's Run, it having been one of my most treasured childhood favorites. I was struck by how much better it's held up over time than I expected it to. And mmmmmmmmm, young Michael York.
• Second Brick. I'm watching it right now, in fact. Also Oldboy. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely for the lover of awesome. Children of Men just came out recently. Definitely worth a peep. Recently rented The Machinist, and loved it. If you like violence, splatter, and boobs, but without any trace of misogyny or homophobia like some films have *coughcough300cough*, I've said it before and I'll say it again, go see Grindhouse right now. Roger Ebert called Dark City one of the greatest films of its decade, and it is. It's everything the Matrix should have been, and it did it a year earlier. Overlooked gem. I'm sure I'll be back later.
• I'll stick to fairly recent films, just for ease of DVD-findability. Black Robe. Incredible film about the meeting of the Old and New Worlds. And, for that matter, The New World by Mallick. Last Night. Quiet little film about the end of the world, on a very personal level. With Genevieve Bujold as the French teacher crush. Great stuff. Japanese Story. An Australian geologist has to shepherd a Japanese businessman around the Outback. An interesting study, and then the plot twist happens, and all of a sudden, it's a radically different movie, and intensely powerful. More than worth the wait of the first half. Talk To Her. Two guys fall in love with women in comas. I cannot remember wanting a film to not end more than this one. Just magical. Infamous. Exact same story as Capote, but an intensely different portrayal -- more successful in some areas, less than others. Great for a compare-and-contrast exercise. More to come, I'm sure.
• And mmmmmmmmm, young Michael York. Buddy of mine recently had lunch with Michael York. As in they shared the same counter at a bar in LaGuardia. Being a good Canadian, he didn't bother him, but on his way out, only gave him a polite thanks for his work. But still -- lunch with Michael York!
• Nice eclectic tastes, roly! Here are some that you might like: Twilight Samurai. It's a character study but also a fine action movie quite unlike the usual chopsocky samurai film. The Third Man. Post-war Berlin, a youngish Orson Welles makes a chilling villain, and the closing scene puts the boots to hopeless romantics everywhere. Delicatessen. A little bit of post-apocalyptic cannibalism in an auberge setting never hurt anyone
• Oh yes, speaking of young Michael York: The Three Musketeers. Accept none of the other dozen remakes!
• If you haven't seen Pan Labyrinth yet, it might be a perfect film. Also The Lives of Others is an amazing look at voyeurism and the impact of art on totalitarianism. I recently watched Sunset Blvd. and quite enjoyed it.
• Hmmm. You might like Dark Star. (John Carpenter's first film, co-written by Dan O'Bannon of later Alien and Return of the Living Dead fame.) If the cheesiness of the effects in Logan's Run make you weep, Dark Star might make you claw your eyes out, they were cheesy and low-budget when the movie was made in 1973. But it has a similar dark satire/nihilistic vibe to Dr. Stangelove, and there's even an homage of sorts to Slim Pickens' famous riding the bomb scene at the end. According to IMDB, it's out on DVD, don't know how easy it is to find.
• Pan's Labyrinth, What Dreams May Come.
• Until The End Of The World (the longest version you can find) The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (a little slow by today's standards, but...Paul Weller, Jeff Goldblum, Chistopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiaveli!) Forbidden Zone (For sheer wierdness - early Danny Elfman) My Life As A Dog Donnie Darko Evil Dead 2 (you do not need to see the first one) Empire of The Sun 5th Element Repo Man Something Wild (Ray "bad ass" Liota) After Hours King of Comedy Brazil Time Bandits Hope and Glory Dreams (Kurasowa - suggest you take something hallucenogenic) Vampire's Kiss (Not a great movie but one of the best performance by Nic Cage - and he's in throughout - "cheapies") Phew.... I'm with you on The Shinning and Logan's Run (Runner!) and StoryBored on Three Musketeers. Fun-knee. If you watch a handful of these films and like them, I have more. Oh, yes, I have more. Mwuah-ha-ack
• Zero Effect
• Could we include movies we hate to love? If not, I'm doing it anyway: Waterworld -- No land yet everyone is dirty and Dennis Hopper piloting the Exxon Valdez...priceless. Commando -- Best Schwarzenegger oneliners ever, plus Vernon Wells as "Freddie Mercury on steroids." Red Dawn -- All that young talent...I told my dad when it came out that I wished Russia would attack my elementary school (we lived in Alaska...it could've happened) Iron Eagle -- Doug Masters and "Time to die, Iron Eagle"...I weep.
• Nthing Donnie Darko and After Hours, also The Party (silly), Fitzcarraldo, and Muppets' Frog Prince (70s-ish) is wondrous fine ("Sweetums lay your ugly head down upon your wretched bed"). Glad to see that other thread linked, too, goetter - lots of fodder there.
• A second on Uncle's The Lives of Others and Sunset Blvd. Sunset is an excellent pairing with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
• Putting another check mark on monkeylion's Buckaroo Banzai, Donnie Darko, as well as Hope and Glory. Increment the count for Happiness, though it might not be your cup of tea. Floating a suggestion on Ghost World and Fanny and Alexander and taking a chance suggesting Into the Night cuz of its mediocre imdb score. But hey it's a techie's fantasy: Jeff Goldblum plays a bored engineer who can't sleep. He ends up driving to the airport where suddenly Michelle Pfeiffer jumps onto the hood of his car. Plus it has David Bowie.
• Additions to those posted in the previous thread: All That Jazz. Pathos and great coreographies. Tampopo. A film about ramen noodles. Timecode. Strange, experimental plot deployment. Migth need a couple viewings to 'get it'. Requiem for a Dream. The best anti-drug abuse film ever. The center of the world. Everyone I know hates this one. I find it oddly mesmerizing. Stratosphere girl.. Flimsy storyline, but it's Japan At Night. A feast for neon junkies.
• Paris Qui Dort is silent magic. Even the silly bits have a charm I can't resist.
• Forgot to mention Cocteau's La Belle et le Bete.
• What, no Donnie Darko?
• Mr. Vampire - Hopping vampires, a life-stealing ghost that throws her own head around like a boomerang... I could go on, but it really has to be seen to be believed. Another fun one is A Chinese Ghost Story. It was recommended by Alnedra, and she was absolutely right to do so. The King of Masks has a brilliant story, excellent acting, and stars a man who's considered a national treasure in China for his mastery of "mask magic", what I believe (but could be wrong) is called Sichuan Change Art. Yojimbo, Akira Kurosawa's samurai epic, which is at least rumored to be inspired by Dashiel Hammett's book Red Harvest, is another one I'd recommend. All of the above I watched with subtitles. I like to read my movies. As I recall, the DVDs for Mr. Vampire and A Chinese Ghost Story also had options to watch the movies dubbed in English. That might be an option if you're not into reading your movies.
• I don't have a favorite, but some others I'd recommend off the top of my head include "Amelie", "Kung Fu Hustle", "Everything is Illuminated", "Memento", "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring", and "You, Me and Everyone We Know".
• Songs from the second floor! Delicatessen!
• If you are really looking for sources of new films, you could always pick a director or a writer, and work your way through their corpus. I do this with novels all the time. So -- you could try things by Hayao Miyazaki (director of My Neighbour Totoro, and Spirited Away); also Isao Takahata (director of Grave of the Fireflies) - they are two of the best animation directors I know of. I really want to see more films by Zhang Yimou, who has made some really small arty films, and some huge (and stunningly beautiful) action films. I also want to see more Akira Kurasawa films - I've only seen Dreams. One of the directors of Delicatessan also directed Amelie - both are great. The other trick to do is to work your way through non-American films. There are many Canadian (like Jesus of Montreal or Louis 19 - the latter later ripped off by Hollywood), New Zealander(The Quiet Earth), Australian, British (lots of miniseries from Britain) films you might not have come across easily in the US. And from the non-English world, there are so many more great films. I remember rolling on the floor watching Shaolin Soccer, which had been released in Asia long before I heard about in North America. There is also the back catelogue of Jackie Chan, which are often much better than his Hollywood films - Drunken Master is classic. From Vietnam, The Scent of Green Papaya is a feast for the eyes - and if they ever get smell-o-vision it will be the favoritist film in the world. When I was very interested in film, I just started watching a lot of Bravo and Showcase, and the international film program on my local public television station (TVO), and I saw so many wonderful, unusual films I would never have seen otherwise, Canadian, European, Asian. I still have tapes of some of them at my mother's house, some I haven't seen in years and barely remember, though I remember liking. I really want to see Leaves and Thorns, if only to remember what happened. (sorry, few of these are "favorites". I don't usually do favorites, since it shifts by the mood. But Louis 19 is a truly hidden gem, though not as good as Jesus of Montreal. Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter is a hidden something or other - it's an interesting experience.)
• If you are really looking for sources of new films, you could always pick a director or a writer, and work your way through their corpus. That's what I did with Hitchcock. As far as I'm concerned, the man never made a serious misstep, even in his less-slick early works.
• Monkeylion got my respect by tagging My Life as a Dog, which is the best coming-of-age movie I've ever seen and no matter how many times I watch it never fails to make me laugh out loud and quietly weep. But then ya had to go ruin it by slamming the original Evil Dead, which despite its bargain-basement effects and sub-Nicolodean stop-motion animation is still a freakin' scary, kinetic flick. Why, Monkeylion? WHY?!?!?! If you're looking for weird and unknown, I suggest the films of Jose Mojica Marins, aka Coffin Joe. A 1960s zero-budget Brazilian filmmaker, he's like David Lynch meets John Waters meets Satan. The Coffin Joe Trilogy was released on DVD a couple years back, and is a real eye-opener. Particularly The Awakening of the Beast, which is so weird and ahead of its time as to be prophetic. If Lynch never watched Marins' movies, I would be shocked. SHOCKED, I say. Warning, though--if you don't like shoestring ingenuity or borderline-surreal mind-fuckery, then Marins is not for you. But he's a natural filmmaker, and ahead of his time by decades, as I said. Check out this excellent interview for more on this fascinating character.
• Another one for Delicatessen. Heavenly Creatures. Adventures in Babysitting Big Trouble in Little China (And I've liked what I've seen of Dario Argento's Cemetery Man, even though my multiple attempts to tape it have all ended in disappointment)
• NE, I didn't slam the original Evil Dead, I just never saw it. With you on Heavenly Creatures and Big Trouble In Little China. The latter possibly a good double feature with Buckaroo Banzai.
• Mine from the previous thread: 1. Nuovo cinema Paradiso [aka, "Cinema Paradiso"] This movie gets me every time. Yes, my love for cinema wrapped in this beautiful package. Wow, I have something in common with IgnorantSlut 2. Biruma no tategoto [aka, "The Burmese Harp"] The spiritual journey and anti-war theme never fail to strike a deep chord within me. 3. Tetsuo [aka, "Iron Man"] I feel more alive each time I watch this movie And I may as well add just about any Kurosawa, Hitchcock, and Marx Brothers film... And I'll add: La Cité des Enfants Perdus [aka, "The City of Lost Children] Same duo that directed another favorite already mentioned, Delicatessen. Zuotian [aka, "Quitting"] Based on the true story of Jia Hongsheng and his battle with drug addiction. The real-life individuals play themselves in this movie from China.
• Nothing Even though you find out the premise within the first twenty minutes, I don't want to describe this movie at all. It's awesome watching this movie knowing nothing about it at all, that's how I watched it. Made by the same people who made Cube.
• SMT, another Marx Brothers Fan! Shall we say Duck Soup? Shall we say A Night at the Opera? Also "I saw the City of Lost Children" but somehow it didn't work as well for me as Delicatessen. And since we're on the subject, from the same filmmaker (Jeunet) there is the delightful Amelie I'll have to make a note of seeing Cinema Paradiso.
• StoryBored, Koko is also a Marx Bros fan if my memory serves... she always gets the better of me when she starts quoting! I must watch Cinema Paradiso once a year. Alfredo!
• If you watch Amelie, be sure to follow it up with A Very Long Engagement. Just as funny and magical, but as Amelie as joyful, Engagement is terribly, terribly sad. Prolly the better film between the two, IMHO.
• Layer Cake The Prestige SuperTroopers Harold and Kumar Battleship Potemkin
• I recall enjoying "Run Lola Run" when I saw it a few years ago. Finding one movie like that means you will see previews for other strange movies. Like "Curdled", a twisted little movie about a killer and the clean-up lady who obsesses over the mess he leaves behind. It is in the same vein of dark humor as "Ravenous" (mentioned above) which I really liked. Oh, and "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai" (with Forrest Whitaker) was also good. In the list of movies I think everyone should see (suffer through) at least once, despite cheesy special effects and general weirdness - "They Live", "Repo Man", "Enemy Mine" and "Strange Brew" are right up there. Don't expect high cinema from any of them, but all were fun to watch for different reasons. And can't neglect mentioning some older but better known movies - "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is a favorite of mine, while "The Sting" (if you haven't seen it) is a great story of a double-cross. Can't go wrong with Newman and Redford, can you? Have no idea if they're on any AFI / IMDB lists, but I like (and own) both of them.
• > A Very Long Engagement... Prolly the better film between the two, IMHO. Agreed. Though Amelie is worth watching. I got a copy of Joyeux Noel for Christmas and liked it. Night on Earth is a fun showcase of international talent. Luis Buñuel is worth investigating; I'd recommend That Obscure Object of Desire, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Milky Way, and Belle de jour.
• > A Very Long Engagement... Prolly the better film between the two, IMHO. NOOOOOO! C'mon you guys, how can you beat that scene in Amelie with the bunny rabbit in the sky????
• I'll see your bunny rabbit in the sky, and raise you the lights-on-lights-off love scene. Hell, after that bell-tower thing, I'd wanted to marry the guy too...
• How about Harold and Maude? Always a fave. Both Man of Aran and Nanook of the North are worth seeing (if you can find them) if only for an early, if anthropologically flawed, look at remote cultures. I second Dark City as excellent and original. And Eraserhead is always good for a few laughs...
• Fight Club -- MY FAVORITE. It has a motivational effect on a lot of people. (And, despite what you may have heard, it's really not terribly violent.) Memento -- It will confuse the heck out of you the first time you see it, but when you "get it" you'll be amazed at the mastery of the screenplay. Just watch it; you'll see... A Simple Plan -- A great story of how money can turn genuinely good people into pure evil, one misdeed at a time. 5th Element -- Just a fun, mainstreamy but non-franchise sci-fi flick. (Milla, why don't you return my calls??)
• I'll see your bunny rabbit in the sky, and raise you the lights-on-lights-off love scene. Ok, I respect your lights-on-lights-off sequence. But i'll see that and raise you the video of the lost horse running on the highway *plus* the dancing one-legged man. *squints*
• well, you can't go wrong with most John Waters movies... my personal faves are "Serial Mom", "Desperate Living", "Female Trouble" and the recent-ish "A Dirty Shame" is pretty fun too. Pick any two for a great double feature... No dog poop, I promise.
• > But i'll see that and raise you the video of the lost horse running on the highway *plus* the dancing one-legged man. But Manech lives in a lighthouse. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
• Quite a lot of people seem to like Local Hero by Bill Forsyth; gentle, quirky, insidious, beautiful, though I prefer his Gregory's Girl and still consider my life incomplete as I was never fancied by Clare Grogan as a teenager ... Sure I've mentioned Lone Star around these parts before ...