Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 3

Thi Them · 02-04-2003, 02:52 PM

I've updated everyone's totals and added the new members.

I will try to update weekly from now on.

~T

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Tim Raffey · 02-04-2003, 10:50 PM

Lew,
The films showed as part of a Dovzhenko retrospective spearheaded by some of the quite large Ukranian community in Manitoba. However, I think Kino recently restored the picture (it looked good for a movie four times my age), so it should turn up eventually in the larger markets (of which I think Dallas counts; certainly more-so than Winnipeg).

Lew Crippen · 02-05-2003, 10:22 AM

Thanks Tim, though I’m not too sure of the size of our Ukranian community.

Kirk Tsai · 02-08-2003, 03:14 AM

124 with "Don't Look Now" and rewatching Do the Right Thing.

Sutherland and Christie's love scene is great. The editing of the film is extrodinary; I think it will reveal more to myself when I see it a second time. The mood captured is genuine, and the way Venice and its people become a nightmare recalls The Third Man. Roeg's direction makes much of the film composed through Sutherland's point of view, making the payoff at the end satisfying. However, I am unsure if this is a great film. The unexplained supernatural elements suggest two things: 1) Sutherland does indeed have "second sight" but denies his ability, or 2) that the demons Sutherland face essentially come from his own grief. Now, are these two reconciable to each other? Maybe. But when the demon/grief takes physical form at the end, I don't know if that is a bold move or overstated case by Roeg. The sinister feeling that all people give off in the film also don't seem to fit after the finale realized.

Rewatched Do The Right Thing because I wanted more perspective on Lee after seeing a few more of his pictures. DTRT was the first Spike Lee joint that I had seen, and it left a very strong impression. What I tried this time was to gather a few people to watch the film with me, so it was partially to see how I react to the film now, and how others as well. The verdict: it's still a masterpiece, but not to some of my friends. To two of them, the movie is Lee at his worst, ranting and signaling "black power" to an irrational degree. The way I see it, every side of each character is mirrored by the end quotes of the film, one advocating non-violence, and the other advocating violence when necessary. Conflict is in every corner, and the way Lee develops his themes is dialectical. We see one side, then another, and then we understand that the combination of the two is what makes racial tension so incrediably difficult to escape from. Even to my friends who did not think well of the film, it stirred a conversation.

george kaplan · 02-08-2003, 08:07 AM

Count me in the "Do the Right Thing is racist group". I despise the message I see coming out of this film. It may indeed spark conversation, but I think a book club reading Mein Kampf would spark conversation. That doesn't mean that Mein Kampf isn't racist. And, no, I'm not suggesting that Spike Lee = Adolph Hitler, just that both of them have racist creations. Did I mention how much I despise Do the Right Thing?

Darren H · 02-10-2003, 07:32 AM

I watched Mother (1926) on Saturday -- my first Pudovkin -- and was very pleasantly surprised. It has the striking imagery that I've come to expect from the early Soviet films, but it's a much more human film that, say, Eisenstein's, which have always felt a bit like intellectual exercises to me.

Edit: Oops. Turns out Mother isn't on the S&S list. Never mind. Still a great film, though.

Lew Crippen · 02-10-2003, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Count me in the "Do the Right Thing is racist group".

And I’m in the ‘it is about race and racial issues, but is not racist’ camp. I’m going to start a thread on this film next week when I return from a trip, as the film has come up in at least one other thread recently.

Adam_S · 02-10-2003, 09:15 PM

Rashoman

I saw this in a 35mm print which was a great treat, even if it was a very soft very dirty print that looked to my very untrained eyes to be from a fourth or later generation nitrate dupe negative and has been in use for forty years (tons of consistent projector wear on the print as well as consistenly appearing hairs and other annoying bits that detracted from the overall theatrical experience).

The film itself was an absolute marvel. Kurasawa's use of black and white was extremely expressive, the four perspectives on the same scene never bored and always remained fascinating. What I found most disturbing was the treatment of the woman, ALL of the male perspectives assumed that since she was raped she somehow consented and be looked down on because she was raped. Including the rapist in one perspective! Her own perspective is so traumatized that the only thing I'm sure of is an enormous sense of anger and despair when her husband blamed her for being raped that emanated from her in her perspective. alternating from the extremes of the Bandits to the Woodcutters versions of the fights at the beginning and end was quite wonderous. I think the actual fight was somewhere in between, the prowess was not what the bandit displayed, but it was not as farcical (though probalby just as frantic) as the woodcutter saw. I think the woodcutters perspective of the battle was jaded by the fact that he seemed to be a very timid and slinking person, and probably hid his eyes whenever the battle looked frantic, so he just filled in the bits that he didn't see with silliness. Since the samurai didn't claim a great battle occured it seems that one, he's ashamed he was defeated, and two he doesn't want to lie more than necessary and describing the battle would be too much lieing because it was not a glorious thing, closer to the woodcutters version than the bandit's in my opinion.

A phenomenal film that I'm still digesting, well deserving of its place on this list.

Adam

Tim RH · 02-10-2003, 11:30 PM

Yes, but do you think the woodcutter killed the woman's husband or did he just steal the knife from his already dead body? That's what I've never been able to figure out. We know he did one or the other, but deciding which one is the difficult part.

If the woodcutter didn't kill him, I'm inclined to believe that the man's wife did, even though he himself said he committed suicide (which I don't think is true). But I guess it's all subjective, anyway.

Adam_S · 02-11-2003, 12:45 AM

ahh that's what's been bothering me but I couldn't put my finger on, the actual death of the samurai! I'd forgotten to try to decide who exactly killed him. You've given me something even more to ponder... thanks!

Adam

Kirk Tsai · 02-13-2003, 03:55 AM

RE Rashomon: do you think the ending solidifies its status as a great film or is it an easy out?

In Akutagawa's story, the ending scene revolving around the baby is non-existent. It was Kurosawa's addition. Donald Richie on the Criterion DVD argues that the film is a full demonstration of Kurosawa's humanist spirit in the face of man's inability of knowing truth that makes the film a masterpiece, but I've also known that some view this as a all too happy, sentimental end to what was a completely challenging film beforehand.