this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
#10 of 2010: Eros. rewarding mix of visual styles, storytelling devices, and degrees of narrative abstraction. acting awards go to Gong Li and Alan Arkin. "The Hand" wins for balancing subtlety with could-be unappealing frankness, resulting of a weirdly beautiful and original (not just trying, succeeding, and without becoming too "arty") love story. see man-alone-with-hand-up-empty-dress-that'
#9 of 2010: Aliens. a great sequel (with just a few stretches at the end).
#8 of 2010: The Man Who Fell to Earth. yea.
#7 of 2010: Alien. finally, not a disappointment.
#6 of 2010: S. Darko. i'll admit that i watched it- all of it- so that you'll take me seriously when i say DO NOT SEE THIS. Unless you want to be encouraged to make your own bad movie, in which case this is a handbook.
#4 of 2010: Choke. less satisfying compared to the source than the fight club book/film.
#3 of 2010: Quantum of Solace. not as good as the last bond.
#2 of 2010: Hustle & Flow.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
#10 of 2010: Eros. rewarding mix of visual styles, storytelling devices, and degrees of narrative abstraction. acting awards go to Gong Li and Alan Arkin. "The Hand" wins for balancing subtlety with could-be unappealing frankness, resulting of a weirdly beautiful and original (not just trying, succeeding, and without becoming too "arty") love story. see man-alone-with-hand-up-empty-dress-that'
#9 of 2010: Aliens. a great sequel (with just a few stretches at the end).
#8 of 2010: The Man Who Fell to Earth. yea.
#7 of 2010: Alien. finally, not a disappointment.
#6 of 2010: S. Darko. i'll admit that i watched it- all of it- so that you'll take me seriously when i say DO NOT SEE THIS. Unless you want to be encouraged to make your own bad movie, in which case this is a handbook.
#4 of 2010: Choke. less satisfying compared to the source than the fight club book/film.
#3 of 2010: Quantum of Solace. not as good as the last bond.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
#10 of 2010: Eros. rewarding mix of visual styles, storytelling devices, and degrees of narrative abstraction. acting awards go to Gong Li and Alan Arkin. "The Hand" wins for balancing subtlety with could-be unappealing frankness, resulting of a weirdly beautiful and original (not just trying, succeeding, and without becoming too "arty") love story. see man-alone-with-hand-up-empty-dress-that'
#9 of 2010: Aliens. a great sequel (with just a few stretches at the end).
#8 of 2010: The Man Who Fell to Earth. yea.
#7 of 2010: Alien. finally, not a disappointment.
#6 of 2010: S. Darko. i'll admit that i watched it- all of it- so that you'll take me seriously when i say DO NOT SEE THIS. Unless you want to be encouraged to make your own bad movie, in which case this is a handbook.
#4 of 2010: Choke. less satisfying compared to the source than the fight club book/film.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
#10 of 2010: Eros. rewarding mix of visual styles, storytelling devices, and degrees of narrative abstraction. acting awards go to Gong Li and Alan Arkin. "The Hand" wins for balancing subtlety with could-be unappealing frankness, resulting of a weirdly beautiful and original (not just trying, succeeding, and without becoming too "arty") love story. see man-alone-with-hand-up-empty-dress-that'
#9 of 2010: Aliens. a great sequel (with just a few stretches at the end).
#8 of 2010: The Man Who Fell to Earth. yea.
#7 of 2010: Alien. finally, not a disappointment.
#6 of 2010: S. Darko. i'll admit that i watched it- all of it- so that you'll take me seriously when i say DO NOT SEE THIS. Unless you want to be encouraged to make your own bad movie, in which case this is a handbook.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
#10 of 2010: Eros. rewarding mix of visual styles, storytelling devices, and degrees of narrative abstraction. acting awards go to Gong Li and Alan Arkin. "The Hand" wins for balancing subtlety with could-be unappealing frankness, resulting of a weirdly beautiful and original (not just trying, succeeding, and without becoming too "arty") love story. see man-alone-with-hand-up-empty-dress-that'
#9 of 2010: Aliens. a great sequel (with just a few stretches at the end).
#8 of 2010: The Man Who Fell to Earth. yea.
#7 of 2010: Alien. finally, not a disappointment.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
#10 of 2010: Eros. rewarding mix of visual styles, storytelling devices, and degrees of narrative abstraction. acting awards go to Gong Li and Alan Arkin. "The Hand" wins for balancing subtlety with could-be unappealing frankness, resulting of a weirdly beautiful and original (not just trying, succeeding, and without becoming too "arty") love story. see man-alone-with-hand-up-empty-dress-that'
#9 of 2010: Aliens. a great sequel (with just a few stretches at the end).
#8 of 2010: The Man Who Fell to Earth. yea.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
#10 of 2010: Eros. rewarding mix of visual styles, storytelling devices, and degrees of narrative abstraction. acting awards go to Gong Li and Alan Arkin. "The Hand" wins for balancing subtlety with could-be unappealing frankness, resulting of a weirdly beautiful and original (not just trying, succeeding, and without becoming too "arty") love story. see man-alone-with-hand-up-empty-dress-that'
#9 of 2010: Aliens. a great sequel (with just a few stretches at the end).
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
#10 of 2010: Eros. rewarding mix of visual styles, storytelling devices, and degrees of narrative abstraction. acting awards go to Gong Li and Alan Arkin. "The Hand" wins for balancing subtlety with could-be unappealing frankness, resulting of a weirdly beautiful and original (not just trying, succeeding, and without becoming too "arty") love story. see man-alone-with-hand-up-empty-dress-that'
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
#12 of 2010: The Duellists. eh. watchable (but certainly not because of the acting. cinematographer- and possibly director- saved this one).
#11 of 2010: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. probably the best movie viewing experience i've had. screening in a bar/venue with a live score provided by three different electronic bands. i'll recommend the movie to myself (couldn't see the subtitles, would like to catch more of the content) and anyone up for a cerebral, symbolic, vision quest of a vampire movie.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
#13 of 2010: 500 Days of Summer. Second viewing, still the best rom-com-dram in recent memory.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
#14 of 2010: Let the Right One In. 3rd viewing of this, still new thoughts on the significance of events/relationships within the plot (without regard to what is or isn't in the book). highly recommended.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
#15 of 2010: La Bete Humaine. eerie pre-noir. 1:05:02 was my favorite part.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
#16 of 2010: Farewell My Concubine.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
#17 of 2010: Blow Up. plodding with some nice digressions and a few subtly charged moments.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
#18 of 2010: His Girl Friday. second viewing. light-speed banter and overall message about the fallacy of gender "normalcy" still refreshing. "trytoturnmeintosomethingelse, i'm not a suburban bridge-player i'm a NEWSPAPER MAN!" - "hildy" rosalind russel
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
#20 of 2010: A Single Man. so wonderful to look at, and especially because the beautiful surfaces contain a glow of slow-moving, sincere emotions. the ending is debatable. i will promptly seek out more colin firth in dramatic roles.
#19 of 2010: Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. yea, ok. i'd never seen this. and now i have. and that's all there is to say.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
#21 of 2010: Inglourious Basterds. Second viewing. This revisionism is weirdly and deliciously retributive. Wonderfully played out suspense, excellent writing, and the cast (excluding diane kruger and eli roth) was brilliant.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
#22 of 2010: The Cell. the first time i saw this was around the time it came out, and i thought it was pretty amazing. i'm even more impressed now. visually incredible, and the story is solid enough not to disappoint.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
#23 of 2010: La Jetee. A massive amount of story in just a half hour. no movement but an eye blink. i would like to hear how her voice sounds. a narrative distillation of what nostalgia feels like to the extreme.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
#24 of 2010: Beverly Hills Cop II. can we get just a couple more dick jokes?
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
#25 of 2010: Aimee and Jaguar. a good historical love story drama. and i love that johanna wokalek.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
#26 of 2010: Das Boot. looooooong. but good. pretty effective as an anti-war movie, and i like seeing things from the German side of the world wars (as in books/movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front"). suspense and my emotional involvement really peaked in the last hour.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
#27 of 2010: Metropolis. solid silent sci-fi. kudos to the "maria" actress for the demonic change-up.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
#28 of 2010: The Fall. really lovely. the leads were fantastic. there was never a point that i wished it would end, but i didn't feel cheated out of any remnants of story. the final montage with voice-over "zoomed" out to a sort of meta-film in a really tasteful (almost memorial) way. if you've seen 'the cell' you'll notice some visual similarities, but this is certainly it's own movie.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
#29 of 2010: The Usual Suspects. took me long enough to sit down and watch this. the movie is the reward. nice work on the screenplay, Mr. McQuarrie. could've sworn it was adapted from a book (i don't really know why). also, i'm becoming a Benicio fan.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
#31 of 2010: Splendor in the Grass. this was surprisingly good. it should be shown to anyone who wants to teach their teenager about the birds and the bees via focus on the family. i have no doubt that this story is still played out, and though i could say more, i'll end on this thought: thank heavens for parents who teach their kids to think by letting them decide.
#30 of 2010: Rashomon. moral chaos=narrative chaos=sweet intercuts of laughing medium channeling dead shitty husband. "true" "sword fight" scene (as told by uninvolved witness. if you've seen it you'll know why both of those are in quotes) and wife's preceding commentary on the situation combine for a sort of feminist reading of the troubling story, which at that point we've been told three times. not that the wife is necessarily a noble person- or even the most noble person in the movie. still, the brokenness of the standard patriarchy (and weakness of men who seem to retain power [for a while] despite it) is in full view. not sure what i make of the conditions of the hopeful ending, but it's good to see "goodness" triumph over "manliness".
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
#32 of 2010: Risky Business. okay so this upper-class brush with the sex trade is less creepy than "pretty woman"s premise, but not quite as *wholesome* as "milk money"s. the three of these together, though, seem to point to a depressing thesis: when you're a man (pre-adolescent, teenage, or grown and undeniably despicable) in a sexual jam (or an existential one. it's the same if you have a penis, these movies seem to say), your cash won't fail you. and as a bonus for being so noble after all (surrendering your money without even exercising your physical dominance! how refreshing!) you'll probably end up having bought more than just sex. you'll have purchased something deeper. . . something akin to love, with all the meal-ticket affection you can handle. that's just one of my takes on this movie. the other one is: oh those crazy eighties hijinks, they get me every time.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
#34 of 2010: Chungking Express. just watch it.
#33 of 2010: El Mariachi. Robert Rodriguez is my new favorite director of the moment. This movie has heart and conscience as well as action, AND is impressively economical, in terms of actual budget and in terms of time (clocks in under 1.5 hours and still avoids scrimping on character development). five stars for this debut (Rodriguez made this film when he was only 23, without wealthy backers or even, in large part, professional actors). 'Robert Rodriguez List': "you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
#35 of 2010: The Lover. probably need to read the book [huh, rachet? exchange fodder?]
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
#36 of 2010: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. "to show how we were and not how we were seen". crash course on recent Iranian political history, along with the cinematic history that it played a part in shaping. wide-ranging reel of clips from the last 50 years. a trip to the "Iran" section of Movie Madness is now in order.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
#37 of 2010: Joe Versus the Volcano. Some of my suspicions were assuaged, especially by the periodic visual references to German Expressionist films (more straightforward in the first half hour, subtle but very present "cabinet of dr. caligari" scenery and makeup, "metropolis" trudge and elevator to the depths. some down-played expressionism in the coloring of later scenes.) really, everything up through the businessman's visit was solid for sure. the love story was a little easy (duh). and there was a trying-on-clothes montage. and a fishing montage. and a ritual preparation montage. it was like the happy version of "Brazil" (with a little less cinematic self-reflexivity), and enjoyable anyways.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
#38 of 2010: The Circle. same director as "The Mirror" (1998), and it uses similar narrative, production, and camera devices to suggest the reality of the situations portrayed: sometimes the camera focused on the speaking characters is blocked by an extra, the soundtrack describes loud actions occurring behind closed doors, there is little or no use of additional lighting (the characters' positions are such that streetlights and environmental fixtures are utilized for maximum impact), and all but two actors (one more central character, and one with a relatively small part) are amateurs. this is an incredibly emotional film that hits all of it's social-problems talking points without ever becoming overwrought or providing details that would morally acquit or condemn the characters. excellent.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
#39 of 2010: Wings of Desire. "city of angels" ripped off this movie's plot and blew it up into a weepy mess. "wings of desire" was better, but not the best thing i've seen this week. too much listing, a little too much theoretical dialogue for my taste. and at the end, this all-consuming knowledge and truth of "man and woman" together (versus the truth of sensuality, of physical and spiritual love between people, of feeling the world in non-heterosexual ways) felt a little like an ethereal support of DOMA. but i liked the main character, the library scenes, peter falk's part, the trapeze artist's complexity, the nick cave concerts (count 'em, 2 in the movie). i'm neutral on this one.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
#40 of 2010: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. analogous to Radiohead's "In Rainbows", this was good in plenty of ways, but what is most interesting about it (and what distinguishes it from similar works) is it's distribution (but it wasn't as catchily mind saturating as 'jigsaw falling into place' no way). Also, the motivation for the making of this is interesting: it was created and released during that little writers' strike that really threw a wrench in the schedules of the still-watches-tv-on-tv-in-traditional-we
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#44 of 2010: The Lost Boys. you can tell they're vampires because they have beautiful mullets. could have done without the strained reference to peter pan in the bloodbath scene at the end ("they just needed a mother"?)
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
#46 of 2010: La Collectionneuse . none of the characters are likable, and this moves much slower than "claire's knee". again, i do appreciate the highly flawed (so egotistical!) male narrator. and my favorite rohmer trick occurs at the end: the abrupt end of the scene after a line or an action that contradicts the convictions that the scene (or in this case, the whole movie) has shown prior. Elsie Wolfa, i'd be interested in knowing what your take on this is from the feminist angle.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#47 of 2010: Love in the Afternoon. best moral tale i've seen, and a fitting end to the series, it would seem. Rohmer is so adept at portraying inner lives, or at least the part of inner life that gets saddled with sorting out love. this film (amongst the tales) is particularly likable because there are only solid characters and still no easy answers (it is basically the mirror of "la collectionneuse", with thoughtful instead of mindless attachments [not that that other tale didn't go into intellectualizing mindlessness] and quotidian instead of exceptional living situations). sure, i'd like to see the story continue with frederic telling helene that he's gonna have a baby with chloe, and helene saying, "great, we'll have weekly dinners or something", and everybody being happy, but rohmer and you and me all know that whether or not that happens doesn't change what we've seen here in these 93 minutes.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#49 of 2010: Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. finished the miniseries. i would recommend this in general as an extremely well documented history lesson. of course all history consists of the interpretation of evidence, the reconstruction of events based on that evidence. and as such, conjecture (statistical or emotional, either way based on the world views of the society that is doing the looking back) sometimes enters in. what i respect about this kind of history is the same thing i respect about good journalism: it is researched well, and presented honestly, and that makes the impact stronger and deeper than sensation and dramatic guesses. also, look up the Jewish Brigade and Moshe Tavor (he was interviewed in the final episode about his role in post-war vigilante-style Natzee killin' operations).
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
this blog is being taken over by my documentation of movies i see this year. if i stay on track with my movie-every-other-day average (currently balanced), that'll be over 180 movies by new years eve. OR MOOORE. here is what i've seen so far:
#52 of 2010: Persona. this deserves another viewing, several. the unconventional visual and auditory presentations of events and thoughts are thoroughly impactful without being totally (or even mostly) readable. Ms. Andersson is startlingly convincing as the complicated, thoughtful, younger woman, with weaker resolve but no shortage of intellect. Ms. Ullmann matches her effort as the virtually line-less "patient" whose composure almost instantly calls into question her doctor's desire to have her "cared for" by the young nurse. Illogical behaviors (blood-sucking, and the nurse playing the actress' wife role to the latter's visiting husband?) leave the reader provoked into sorting out what the characters are "actually" doing and what is imagined, what is visual representation of internal conditions (my preliminary conclusion is that they are really getting THAT TWISTED by the end of the film). this is just inspecting the surface. if you haven't seen it, do.
#51 of 2010: My Night at Maud's. this is a moral tale that i can get on board with: everyone is "guilty", honest, and still able to love meaningfully.
#50 of 2010: Paper Heart. some of it was really pretty entertaining, and the rest was watchable if slow. but i feel like that's kinda how Charlyne Yi's comedy works. you just have to pay attention.
#48 of 2010: Un Chen Andalou. sixteen minutes of surrealism i.e. dead donkeys in pianos holding a man back from sexually assaulting a woman whose armpit hair replaces his mouth.
#45 of 2010: The Iron Giant. this is the best thing i've seen in a few weeks, which is saying a lot considering. . .
#43 of 2010: Claire's Knee. suggested tagline: it's not as creepy as it is.
#42 of 2010: Suzanne's Career. in a way, this made me feel like i was in college again. not sure what way exactly.
#41 of 2010: The Bakery Girl of Monceau. i might be cheating a little by counting each of these, but the six moral tales are certainly not a single film. in the first installment, it's good to see the neuroticism of men, the assumptions and judgements and vanity. there is something so egalitarian about the "moral" evaluations of the films filtering so obviously through the subjective temperaments and flaws of the narrating character, who acts as a sort of clearly unreliable judge in a position of extreme authority. this not only complicates the story by simplifying it unfairly (the observed or objectified, used or simply associated characters can't defend themselves against the voice-over's impressions), but also complicates the viewers expectations about the "moral of the story".
2 comments:
I LOVE DR HORRIBLES SINGALONG BLOGGGGG also i can't tell what a lot of these are
my word verification: falasal
ask if you wanna know.
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