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01-10-2004, 02:00 AM
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#1351 of 3729 
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Member
Location: St. Louis, MO
Join Date: Feb 2000
Local Time: 04:59 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 10,445
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Bunuel has more and better DVD's than a number of other great directors do though I too would like to see all of his films on DVD. I believe Phantom of Liberty and maybe one more will be released by Criterion this year.
Yes, Captain Hammer's here, hair blowing in the breeze. The day needs my saving expertise! - Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool
2002 Sight & Sound Challenge: 313 Last Watched: Time of the Gypsies
Last 10 Films Watched:
Taste the Blood of Dracula - B / Joshua - B+
The Guard From Underground - C / Halloween (2007) - B-
Retribution - B / Frontiers - C
The Third Mother - B+ / The Mist - A
Diary of the Dead - B+ / The Invisible Man - B+
DVD BEAVER My Collection
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01-10-2004, 08:41 AM
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#1352 of 3729
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Member
Join Date: Feb 2003
Local Time: 11:59 PM
Local Date: 10-15-2008
Posts: 608
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The other Bunuel coming up is probably Milky Way since Rialto owns it. I love Phantom of Liberty, it's probably his more absurd movie, ii almost make Discreet Charm and Exterminating Angel seem normal.
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01-11-2004, 07:43 PM
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#1353 of 3729
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Local Time: 08:59 PM
Local Date: 10-15-2008
Posts: 1,791
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Alexander Nevsky has three major problems that keep it from being a movie I would want to see again:
1) The acting is pretty awful
2) The propoganda is utterly lacking in subtlety
3) For the most part, it's dull as dirt.
However, it so packed from start to end with astonishing, gorgeous, memorable images that I have to admit that from a photographic standpoint, it is truly a great film.
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01-11-2004, 11:10 PM
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#1354 of 3729
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Member
Location: Lexington, KY
Join Date: May 2001
Local Time: 12:59 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 8,423
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The Last Picture Show
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Overall Score: A-
It was good. Can't say anything else about it other than that I thought the use of black and white was very appropriate. Reminds me of a dying town called Pikeville, Kentucky.
It's amazing to discover young actresses back in the day. Cybil Shepard looked quite the dish way back when. Kind of suprised to see Randy Quaid.
I think the best character is Sam the Lion. Not much screen time, but he certainly had presence.
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01-12-2004, 01:01 AM
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#1355 of 3729
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Member
Location: St. Louis, MO
Join Date: Feb 2000
Local Time: 04:59 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 10,445
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Good propaganda isn't subtle. Its supposed to inspire action and outrage. You don't do that by being subtle. But otherwise, Nevsky isn't a movie I hold in high regard either. I think Lew and others here have a much higher opinion of it.
Yes, Captain Hammer's here, hair blowing in the breeze. The day needs my saving expertise! - Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool
2002 Sight & Sound Challenge: 313 Last Watched: Time of the Gypsies
Last 10 Films Watched:
Taste the Blood of Dracula - B / Joshua - B+
The Guard From Underground - C / Halloween (2007) - B-
Retribution - B / Frontiers - C
The Third Mother - B+ / The Mist - A
Diary of the Dead - B+ / The Invisible Man - B+
DVD BEAVER My Collection
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01-12-2004, 09:42 AM
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#1356 of 3729
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Member
Location: Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexíco
Join Date: May 2002
Local Time: 11:59 PM
Local Date: 10-15-2008
Posts: 11,415
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Indeed I do Brook—and for sure there is nothing subtle about ‘Nevsky’, I find the cinematography simply some of the best ever on film and the editing of the ‘Battle on the Ice’ montage to be Eisenstein at his finest.
Elsewhere someone wrote that they disliked the score. For me Sergei Prokofiev has written one of film’s finest scores—though (as some critics have observed) it is represented in one of film’s worst soundtracks—even Criterion could not do very much to make it sound very good, so I assume that the source is really very poor.
One of the things that I find strange, is that both Brook and I are Eisenstein fans, but we differ almost completely as to which of his films are great and which a bit substandard.
I do agree that the acting will not be to everyone’s cup of tea—but I’m convinced that what we are seeing is exactly what Eisenstein desired: nothing that the masses could misinterpret.
¡Time is not my master!
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01-13-2004, 08:30 AM
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#1357 of 3729
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Member
Location: Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexíco
Join Date: May 2002
Local Time: 11:59 PM
Local Date: 10-15-2008
Posts: 11,415
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The Man with the Movie Camera is often considered a documentary, as it depicts a newsreel cameraman as he travels around a city. A silent film, without intertitles (although it does use signs and posters in lieu of intertitles), it is full of now familiar visual tricks.
Fascinating as an historical piece of filmmaking and well enough done to stand on its own merit. See this one at least once.
¡Time is not my master!
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01-14-2004, 03:32 PM
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#1358 of 3729
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Member
Location: St. Louis, MO
Join Date: Feb 2000
Local Time: 04:59 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 10,445
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The Great Dictator is Chaplin's famous satire of Hitler and facism. A courageous individual statement, and highly successful at the time, it seems something of a relic now. I just didn't find it very funny, the humor is almost good-natured, rather than biting or insightful (Hitler cavorting with a balloon, accent jokes, pies in the face?). Plus Hitler, while absurd and stupid, comes off as almost likeable as played by Chaplin. He's much more compelling than the Jewish barber character also played by Chaplin. In the tepid romantic scene with Paulette Goddard in the barber chair, he seems condescending and aloof. The final image of Goddard was intriguing though, as it looked to be an homage to Russian propaganda films, especially Dozhenko's Earth
An interesting history piece, but I found it the least satisfying of his films. Give me The Gold Rush or Monsieur Verdoux any day.
Yes, Captain Hammer's here, hair blowing in the breeze. The day needs my saving expertise! - Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool
2002 Sight & Sound Challenge: 313 Last Watched: Time of the Gypsies
Last 10 Films Watched:
Taste the Blood of Dracula - B / Joshua - B+
The Guard From Underground - C / Halloween (2007) - B-
Retribution - B / Frontiers - C
The Third Mother - B+ / The Mist - A
Diary of the Dead - B+ / The Invisible Man - B+
DVD BEAVER My Collection
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01-17-2004, 05:16 AM
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#1359 of 3729
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Local Time: 08:59 PM
Local Date: 10-15-2008
Posts: 1,791
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It's very late, so I can't think of much to say about Vivre Sa Vie except that I liked it a hell of a lot more than Les Carabiniers. Now I'm actually looking forward to the other 6 Godard films on the list.
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01-17-2004, 10:33 AM
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#1360 of 3729
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Member
Location: St. Louis, MO
Join Date: Feb 2000
Local Time: 04:59 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 10,445
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Just about every Godard fan that I know (including me) ranks Vivre Sa Vie as his best. I don't think its possible to watch it and not fall completely in love with Anna Karena.
I ordered Les Carabiniers several weeks ago but it seems to have gotten lost in the mail. I need to get around to contacting Deepdiscount and see if they'll send me a replacement.
Emory U. is having a Godard class this spring so I'm hoping they'll show a few of his films I haven't seen. I think they may be showing L'histoire du Cinema, Week-End and a few of his 70's films.
Hiroshima Mon Amour should have arrived yesterday so hopefully it will be in the mail today. I hate the months following Christmas when Netflix slows to a crawl. Movies are taking a day longer to get checked in and two days longer to reach me and there's a warehouse a couple of miles from my house. It must be REALLY slow for those who don't have a warehouse in their city.
Yes, Captain Hammer's here, hair blowing in the breeze. The day needs my saving expertise! - Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool
2002 Sight & Sound Challenge: 313 Last Watched: Time of the Gypsies
Last 10 Films Watched:
Taste the Blood of Dracula - B / Joshua - B+
The Guard From Underground - C / Halloween (2007) - B-
Retribution - B / Frontiers - C
The Third Mother - B+ / The Mist - A
Diary of the Dead - B+ / The Invisible Man - B+
DVD BEAVER My Collection
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01-19-2004, 12:38 AM
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#1361 of 3729
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Member
Location: Lexington, KY
Join Date: May 2001
Local Time: 12:59 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 8,423
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Do The Right Thing
Directed by Spike Lee
Overall Score: ?
I don't know a lick of sense about film theory. But I do have my guesses. I guess it has something to do with the way a film interacts with its audiences, author/artist intentions be damned. The "Al's" and their implications are staggering.
Personally, I won't go into film theory, given that the vocabulary for proper dissertation on film theory is beyond my reckoning (nice article in the After Hours Thread by the way), elitist, pretentious, and I plain don't like it. I still like to use "it sucks" or "it doesn't suck" in my film criticism thank you very much. 
So what in the hell does film theory (what little I do know) have to do with Do The Right Thing? It's probably the idea of how I interact with it I guess.
If you'll notice, I don't even have a score for Do The Right Thing. That's because I don't even have the slightest clue what to think of it. My perceptions are colored by what others have said (a big thanks to Lew and his thread. Digging in the dirt was fun | |
