Yeah I saw it last October. It's incredible. I loved everything about it. It works so incredibly well and it's such a fresh biopic, too. Must watch for everyone imoVader182 wrote: ↑July 13th, 2019, 3:10 amMishima: A Life in Four Chapters--
Schrader's magnum opus and a self-reflexive masterwork where the life of an artist and his art become a blurred, beautiful tapestry. It is also totally singular movie incomparable to any other.
It is at once a crisp black and white biopic of a famous author and an avant garde restaging of his famous plays and texts in swirling surrealist settings, a divide that grows more amorphous and unified in the final of Mishima's four parts.
Key themes of rebellion, repression and social claustrophobia return from Schrader's other films, but present also are themes of buried sexuality, a specifically Japanese cultural disassociation, and how our interior and exterior lives clash and collide in ecstatic contradiction. This is a masterpiece.
Has anyone seen this?
-Vader
Last Film You Watched? VI
yeah, i blind bought the criterion after First Reformed and was blown away. it’s an all timer for me.Vader182 wrote: ↑July 13th, 2019, 3:10 amMishima: A Life in Four Chapters--
Schrader's magnum opus and a self-reflexive masterwork where the life of an artist and his art become a blurred, beautiful tapestry. It is also totally singular movie incomparable to any other.
It is at once a crisp black and white biopic of a famous author and an avant garde restaging of his famous plays and texts in swirling surrealist settings, a divide that grows more amorphous and unified in the final of Mishima's four parts.
Key themes of rebellion, repression and social claustrophobia return from Schrader's other films, but present also are themes of buried sexuality, a specifically Japanese cultural disassociation, and how our interior and exterior lives clash and collide in ecstatic contradiction. This is a masterpiece.
Has anyone seen this?
-Vader
transit might be the best movie this year holy shit
if you've seen Phoenix this is at least as good.
-Vader
if you've seen Phoenix this is at least as good.
-Vader
Posts: 566
Joined:
July 2010
Transit was really great. Though at times it felt that it didn't bring anything new to the Casablanca based plot.
The Tarnished Angels (1957)
Sirk was having a phenomenal run of films around that time, but this might be the best of bunch. His partnership with Hudson pays off big time here as I haven't seen him better in his career. How every character plays off with each other is just phenomenal. And the film was definitely helped by the source material written by Faulkner. Incredible film.
The Tarnished Angels (1957)
Sirk was having a phenomenal run of films around that time, but this might be the best of bunch. His partnership with Hudson pays off big time here as I haven't seen him better in his career. How every character plays off with each other is just phenomenal. And the film was definitely helped by the source material written by Faulkner. Incredible film.
I couldn't disagree more. Transit takes a basic outline of Casablanca plotline and channels it through Buñuel, Borges and Kafka. The transposed and ambiguous era, the puzzle-box and circular structure, the existential thriller template, it all reconfigures what Transit is.
It has so much to say about identity, statelessness, immigration, possibly even life, death, purgatory, and hell.
-Vader
The four films I saw this weekend in 35mm:
Babyface
We saw the uncensored version of this. This was really fucking fantastic. The "you must use men" scene is delivered with such gravitas and passion. The movie came out 86 years ago but it was like Alphonse Ethier was sitting next to you and telling you this.
Barbara Stanwyck is of course her usual amazing self. She nailed the role perfectly and I love how she also always looked out for her friend Chico, portrayed by the ever so sweet Theresa Harris. The presenter Bruce Goldstein told us about how rare it was to see that sort of friendship between a white woman and a black woman on film back then.
Employees' Entrance
Change the ending a bit maybe and I think this film would resonate very well in the present day. The film is about a general manager at a department store who runs a tight ship, fires people at a moment's notice, oh and he rapes the women he works with.
Warren William plays a great sleazebag. Lorretta Young is so vulnerable that your heart aches for her, and her husband who is portrayed by Wallace Ford plays such a good dude
Blessed Event
A tabloid columnist takes it upon himself to report on pregnancies in high society, a "blessed event" if you will.
The dialogue in this is so fantastic. So quickly delivered and has layers of subtext, double entendre, and is just overall so freaking clever and perfectly placed. I wonder if Aaron Sorkin ever saw this one...
Blood Money
Probably one of the rarest films in this collection. It only has like 113 logs on Letterboxd and it's not really available on streaming as far as I know.
I think this one was my favorite of the four. I loved how intertwined the plot and all the characters were and it was all done within 65 minutes. Brevity that still somehow delivered a great plot, characterizations, and even a romance and character development. Goldstein commented that the mega blockbusters of today could never even dream of doing that and he got a lot of claps for that
.
Up next, this Friday is Three on a Match and Gold Diggers of 1933. Former will be presented in digital and the latter in 35mm. Maybe I can learn something from the latter...
Babyface
We saw the uncensored version of this. This was really fucking fantastic. The "you must use men" scene is delivered with such gravitas and passion. The movie came out 86 years ago but it was like Alphonse Ethier was sitting next to you and telling you this.
Barbara Stanwyck is of course her usual amazing self. She nailed the role perfectly and I love how she also always looked out for her friend Chico, portrayed by the ever so sweet Theresa Harris. The presenter Bruce Goldstein told us about how rare it was to see that sort of friendship between a white woman and a black woman on film back then.
Employees' Entrance
Change the ending a bit maybe and I think this film would resonate very well in the present day. The film is about a general manager at a department store who runs a tight ship, fires people at a moment's notice, oh and he rapes the women he works with.
A tabloid columnist takes it upon himself to report on pregnancies in high society, a "blessed event" if you will.
The dialogue in this is so fantastic. So quickly delivered and has layers of subtext, double entendre, and is just overall so freaking clever and perfectly placed. I wonder if Aaron Sorkin ever saw this one...
Blood Money
Probably one of the rarest films in this collection. It only has like 113 logs on Letterboxd and it's not really available on streaming as far as I know.
I think this one was my favorite of the four. I loved how intertwined the plot and all the characters were and it was all done within 65 minutes. Brevity that still somehow delivered a great plot, characterizations, and even a romance and character development. Goldstein commented that the mega blockbusters of today could never even dream of doing that and he got a lot of claps for that
.Up next, this Friday is Three on a Match and Gold Diggers of 1933. Former will be presented in digital and the latter in 35mm. Maybe I can learn something from the latter...
Posts: 566
Joined:
July 2010
I know I know. Just that overall I felt the movie fell slightly short from truly hitting me. Once again I really really liked the film.Vader182 wrote: ↑July 14th, 2019, 2:11 pmI couldn't disagree more. Transit takes a basic outline of Casablanca plotline and channels it through Buñuel, Borges and Kafka. The transposed and ambiguous era, the puzzle-box and circular structure, the existential thriller template, it all reconfigures what Transit is.
It has so much to say about identity, statelessness, immigration, possibly even life, death, purgatory, and hell.
-Vader
Orca: indeed the best worst Jaws rip-off. I must say it was more fun than I expected it to be. Rampling is easily the highlight of the film.
Alita Battle Angel: I wasn't familiar with the manga or anime but this was overall just so devoid of life. It's has some of the most dull dialogue in recent memory. It was also completely unnecessary to have Salazar in mo-cap... Sometimes the CGI was impressive but more often than not it was either unconvincing or downright terrifying. It's beyond me why they chose for so many VFX. This could've had some real charm if they did as much in camera as possible.
All in all a failed attempt.
Dumbo (2019): Burton has lost his groove imo. It's dull, the character development is minimal and it's beyond me why literally the entire film was shot on a soundstage. Even the scenes that take place outside where shot indoors... The green screen is ever apparent. It also sucks that most of the VFX were unconvincing. Especially that train at the start... smh.
Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo: lol
Yesterday: a very fun and dare I say original idea. Patel is a charismatic lead, James too and McKinnon was absolutely hilarious. The love-story was very thin though and dragged the film down. I will always like Boyle's energetic style but he's been better than this.
Kursk: I wasn't aware of this true story... Insane that it had to go that way... Schoenaerts is always good but Seydoux got the most intense dialogue scenes. Which she completely owned. That ending overall was intense but that scene with Sydow sealed the deal.
Would've helped if they toned down the VFX here and there. The practical stuff was great, the underwater scene especially.
Shaft (2019): Samuel L. Jackson always delivers. It was fun. Just found out Bale is also in the Shaft film prior to this one. Now I want to see that too lol
Bad Boys: so this is where the Bayhem began. Would've been better if Smith had more screentime imo.
The Mustang: This was great. Schoenaerts aces it. Definitely worth checking out. I love how the story didn't went with all the typical prison-tropes.
Alita Battle Angel: I wasn't familiar with the manga or anime but this was overall just so devoid of life. It's has some of the most dull dialogue in recent memory. It was also completely unnecessary to have Salazar in mo-cap... Sometimes the CGI was impressive but more often than not it was either unconvincing or downright terrifying. It's beyond me why they chose for so many VFX. This could've had some real charm if they did as much in camera as possible.
All in all a failed attempt.
Dumbo (2019): Burton has lost his groove imo. It's dull, the character development is minimal and it's beyond me why literally the entire film was shot on a soundstage. Even the scenes that take place outside where shot indoors... The green screen is ever apparent. It also sucks that most of the VFX were unconvincing. Especially that train at the start... smh.
Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo: lol
Yesterday: a very fun and dare I say original idea. Patel is a charismatic lead, James too and McKinnon was absolutely hilarious. The love-story was very thin though and dragged the film down. I will always like Boyle's energetic style but he's been better than this.
Kursk: I wasn't aware of this true story... Insane that it had to go that way... Schoenaerts is always good but Seydoux got the most intense dialogue scenes. Which she completely owned. That ending overall was intense but that scene with Sydow sealed the deal.
Would've helped if they toned down the VFX here and there. The practical stuff was great, the underwater scene especially.
Shaft (2019): Samuel L. Jackson always delivers. It was fun. Just found out Bale is also in the Shaft film prior to this one. Now I want to see that too lol
Bad Boys: so this is where the Bayhem began. Would've been better if Smith had more screentime imo.
The Mustang: This was great. Schoenaerts aces it. Definitely worth checking out. I love how the story didn't went with all the typical prison-tropes.
I watched Koyaanisqatsi on Youtube—nonoptimal but sufficient. The film serves as a great demonstration of what you can accomplish with film, even narratively, without abiding by usual storytelling elements or characters. It features a supra-par soundtrack that provides the film with a much-needed sense of energy. Koyaanisqatsi's pacing is particularly interesting, in that without the soundtrack, the film would feel extremely slow-paced, but the driving, energetic music supplements disinterest you may find in any cinematographic sections. It teaches that pacing is a balance between all elements, including music. That's something which many films entirely forget, skimping on the soundtrack and thus creating a slog.
The film, overall, is "pretty good". I wouldn't generally categorize it as "great", but it is great in the sense of being an educational film, as a film to study. It had far more impact on me than other so-called classics like Taxi Driver.
The film, overall, is "pretty good". I wouldn't generally categorize it as "great", but it is great in the sense of being an educational film, as a film to study. It had far more impact on me than other so-called classics like Taxi Driver.
