Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Adam_S
still it's an interesting challenge. 60 titles, 60 different directors, best/most important films ever made, I kind of like the limitation on one film per director it prevents fetishizing a list with the bias of whoever is choosing.
|
Yep.
I guess the one aspect of this is still that while clearly (IMO) there are films on the lists that aren't really one of the 10 best ever in the person's opinion, but just a film they wanted to champion, they still must be powerful enough/loved enough to make it into their "films I want to champion" list.
If you are a film enthusiast and have seen a ton of film and still find a certain film to be worthy of being championed, then there has to be some merit in there I think.
Much of what we come up against are just are trained H'wood narrative tastes. I'd bet most of us (anyone besides George) have had our tastes skewed a bit more away from H'wood expectations...and H'wood in this case does NOT mean schlock, it just means narrative structure which includes pacing, character structure, serving the story over the themes, characters, tone and so on.
I LOVE H'wood narrative. It's a great form. But honestly I think the biggest reason it's so popular is just that it won the battle early on and then got copied over and over. People have learned to watch films by watching films. So however the films they started with did it, that's what they come to expect the next time.
Nothing wrong with that, but I'd bet that if Bunuel had been king of the castle in 1915 and had his stuff getting duplicated everywhere, we all might be talking about the quirky methods of Spielberg instead. Of course the human interest in being told stories is a major factor too.
Pyassa - Kaagaz ke pool
I enjoyed both, but preferred Kaagaz, mostly for the songs. Both are hard melodrama.
Fanny and Alexander - Un Chien - well Bunuel is growning on me, but I've loved Bergman right from the start, so this film appealed to me a lot more. It's not as simple as "pretty shots are nice to watch", I do feel like he is telling me things throughout his films. I just feel comfortable with some of his "logic jumps", to me they typically make sense on a non-narrative level.
Actually it could be that they do have a narrative motive behind them, its just a more unusual narrative. Contrast that with Bunuel who clearly is trying to disrupt the semiotics the entire time. As I said before, as I've grown used to Bunuel's "patterns" I've enjoyed them a bit more.
Once you get out of the "story time" mood I think Bunuel goes over very well.
Adam
Quote:
|
I think I'll probably go with Aguirre. I've wanted to see it for ages.
|
I am morally bound to suggest you punch yourself in the nuts for a couple of hours instead.
Okay, it's not that bad and at times pretty amazing, but I'm the HTF "Aguirre basher" mostly due to how amateurish it gets. I'm the only person on the board that feels this way I think. I've said my peace, just make sure to have some ice ready for those nuts.
Okay, hate to keep the long post going, but here are my latest entries. I've been lax in getting back on here. Gotta fix that.
The Passenger
Loved it. The camera work is really just briliant, and I don't mean the very clever long take at the end of the film. Two other scenes stand out to me. At the roadside cafe the camera leaves the couple to follow cars passing in the background, swinging hard one way then back the other for cars going in different directions.
What I find interesting about a choice like that is how he clearly deemphasizes the characters and puts our focus on that background, increasing it's importance. And while he has a clear, strong plot running in the film, the entire time the theme seems to be a demphasis on characters and narrative, which is exactly the quandry Jack's character is going through. He's detaching from his own personality and life track, trying to leave it behind and yet he's also not really trying to be the new character either.
He hits it even with the dialog when Jack asks about the details she can see out the window. The everyday occurances, life simply passing by like those cars, become the focus. And he does it without having to kick the narrative to the curb.
The other brilliant piece of direction is when Maria is in the car looking back as the drive down the tree lined road. The set of camera moves and the placement of the camera itself is just incredible work. When someone wants to know what "direction" is vs mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography and other jobs that get assigned to a director's style as much as direction itself does, this is the scene to start with.
Again he doesn't break the narrative in the least. It's not form over content, it's content with form.
I didn't get as much out of L'Avventura as The Passenger, but honestly this got me interested in giving it another look. I wrote so much because I really did just get a lot from it. I blew seeing it in the theater last year like an idiot.
Fear Eats the Soul
I also really love the direction here, though Fassbinder is not so careful to avoid form breaking into the narrative, leaving every scene "frozen" at the end and sometimes the beginning (quoted because it's not a single frame stopped, but the characters simply stop and look at the camera for 10-20 seconds at the end of scenes).
It is more obviously metaphorical at times with scenes representing the themes more than just acting out single anecdotes of them (the themes being racism, the need to be loved, stranger in a strange land, a few others).
I'm sure for some it might be too heavy handed, but it's far less form over function high art than a lot of stuff on the S&S list.
Rosemary's Baby
I had counted this already, but it had been so long that I wanted to see it again. Good thriller, some questionable character choices but generally a tight script. Enjoyable, but dwarfed by Chinatown in terms of overall brilliance.
My count is now at 239 and I see the sub-100 left club getting close.
I Vitelloni is in the house and I think is my last Fellini (thank god to be honest, not my fave really). I guess I should bump Algiers up my queue. L'eclisse is also here and after The Passenger I'm pretty excited to make some time for it.