Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 71

Jim_K · 07-09-2004, 09:59 AM

Getting back from the planet of Bunuel.

Los Olvidados

A breath of fresh air from Bunuel, who was becoming a bit predictable with his repetitive themes of obsession, sex & religion. Set in Mexico, this is a brutally honest portrait of a group of vicious street youths & is a brilliant precursor to A Clockwork Orange.

Viridiana

In the name of charity & goodwill a nun opens up her home to the cripples & beggars. What she gets in return isn’t what she expected as Bunuel gives us a very wicked satire on human nature.

Un Chien andalou

16 minute short in which the twisted minds of Bunuel & Salvador Dali team up to show us a series of nightmarish visuals. Famous for the “razorblade slicing the eyeball” scene. Interesting but ultimately pointless as it’s only reason for being is for shock value.

Bunuel films seen
Los Olvidados ****
Belle de jour ***½
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie ***
Viridiana ***
The Exterminating Angel ***
Un Chien andalou **½
Tristana **½
Land Without Bread **
That Obscure Object of Desire **
Diary of a Chambermaid **

Brook K · 07-09-2004, 01:07 PM

The Gwinnett County library system only carries children's movies. The Fulton County Library (Atlanta City and "inside the perimeter") does carry some S&S movies I haven't seen, like a few Mizoguchi's, but if you aren't a county resident it costs $75 annually for a library card. A pretty expensive rental fee for what I think would amount to 5-6 movies watched. And I simply don't have the money to go buy whatever I need on ebay.

But I'm really pre-bitching. I still have 8-9 I can get from Netflix that I'm slowly parsing out (Don't Look Now was one of these Seth, though it was funny that my wife found it on one of the movie channels later that night after we had already watched it. I don't have Tivo.) Plus I also have 1 DVD (The Godfather Trilogy, I've never seen GF III) and 3-4 VHS recordings (Greed, Napoleon) that I still haven't gotten around to watching.

I can just forsee the time coming later this year when I will have exhausted this stockpile.

Well, I can agree with Seth about Zentropa which I think is fantastic, but then I would probably say that Von Trier is the best currently working director (since Scorsese's best work seems long behind him). But of course I would completely disagree that Godard has no substance to his style, although that's an entirely different discussion.

And Hotel Terminus is the first time I've agreed with Jim in 40 reviews or more. Then you finally give a really positive review to Bunuel, and I can't agree with that either as Los Olvidados, though I like it, is probably my least favorite of his films. I dig that "repetitive" sex & religion. Lots of filmmakers use the same themes throughout their work - Bergman, Kurosawa, Ozu, Woody Allen, Fassbinder, Scorsese, John Ford, Rohmer, Hitchcock, etc., etc.

Lew Crippen · 07-09-2004, 01:20 PM

Quote:

And Hotel Terminus is the first time I've agreed with Jim in 40 reviews or more. Then you finally give a really positive review to Bunuel, and I can't agree with that either

And this after spending some time watching documentaries again, so that I don’t make too many errors in my comments, just brings a very big smile to my face.

Jim_K · 07-09-2004, 04:00 PM

And Hotel Terminus is the first time I've agreed with Jim in 40 reviews or more.

A freak occurence I'm sure so don't get your hopes up.

As for your Library system, you have my sympathies. I suppose I'm fortunate to have a Library system with a network of over 75 Libraries in the Metro-suburban area where I live. Most have no charge for A/V material, the ones that do the cost is a pittance at $.50 or $1. Between this & Netflix, this should keep me going to about the 300 mark. After that there aren't many options left for the remaining 40 titles. If I had to purchase these titles to watch them, then I wouldn't be participating.

I used to have an uber-cool Mom & Pop video store in my neighborhood that carried thousands of rare, obscure, cult, classic & Foreign titles. They refused to go the DVD route & went under because of it.

The Gospel According to St Matthew

Grungy & earthy retelling of the story of Christ. Features some interesting visuals but I prefer Scorsese’s Last Temptation.

An Autumn Afternoon

Déjà vu time as Ozu repeats himself (Late Spring) with another tale of an aging father who looses his daughter to marriage. Eh, if you’ve seen one Ozu film, you’ve seen ‘em all.

Give me Kurosawa or Mizoguchi any day of the week, or for that matter Kobayashi, Okamoto, Ichikawa, Misumi, etc.

Ozu films seen
Tokyo Story ***
Late Spring **½
Good Morning **
An Autumn Afternoon **

Brook K · 07-09-2004, 05:10 PM

Quote:

A freak occurence I'm sure so don't get your hopes up.

Ya got that right. It didn't take long - Gospel According To St. Matthew - I've got the R2 Tartan disc and love the film. Right from that opening where he shows Mary and has "Motherless Child" play on the soundtrack. I love Scorsese's film too, but Gospel is my favorite film rendering of Jesus, a simple, very plain looking man with unfathomable power inside him.

And though I haven't seen Autumn Afternoon, I completely disagree with you on Ozu which we've probably covered before ad nauseum.

But that's why I don't reply to most of your reviews; we have very different tastes and I'm sure you don't need to see a "I disagree, blah, blah" chime-in from me after everyone of them.

And where do you find the time? I thought I watched a lot of movies but you're practically in Bill McA territory lately.

Jim_K · 07-10-2004, 09:39 AM

And where do you find the time? I thought I watched a lot of movies but you're practically in Bill McA territory lately.

Some of these I've seen are from a few days to a few weeks ago. I had a dozen or so under my belt before I started posting in this thread again & I'm just leisurely writing a few reviews at a time when I get the chance. The past two nights have been devoted entirely to the Warner noir films (fantastic) which I bought & the Universal noir films (good) which I rented through Netflix. I still have 7 more reviews to write on S&S films before I'm caught up to present time.

As for finding the time, I don’t know as it seems time is a luxury I don’t have. I don't watch network television at all or sports (with the exception of the MLB playoffs & the occasional College or NFL game) so whatever free time I have at night or weekends (aside from spending time with my wife & newborn), goes to watching films or reading.

A Star is Born

Big bloated Hollywood Musical/Melodrama starring the older, puffy-faced & probably stoned Judy Garland. Yuck.

Cukor films seen
The Philadelphia Story ****
Gaslight ***½
Adam’s Rib ***
A Star is Born *½

Meet Me in St Louis

A family prepares to move to the Big Apple just in time to miss the World’s Fair. Average fair I guess - I’m not the best judge of musicals, not my cup of tea.

Minnelli films seen
The Bad and the Beautiful ***
Lust For Life ***
Father of the Bride ***
An American in Paris **½
Meet Me in St Louis **

Jim_K · 07-11-2004, 11:46 AM

Burnt By the Sun

Bittersweet film about a Russian hero’s vacation with his family in the 30’s Soviet Union. Whimsical story takes a dark turn when his family is targeted by Stalin’s secret police. Above average.

The Young Girls of Rochefort

Gene Kelly & Catherine Deneuve star in this big, boisterous & colorful French musical. Again – not my cup ‘o tea.

Demy films seen
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg **
The Young Girls of Rochefort **

Varda films seen
Cleo from 5 to 7 **
The Young Girls of Rochefort **

Adam_S · 07-11-2004, 05:41 PM

Ivan the Terrible Part I -

Despite the almost silly theatrics of the acting, I really liked this quite a bit more than Alexander Nevsky. Of course I was also more interested because I kept waiting for Ivan to kill all the boyars.

Some very enjoyable stuff here, and the amazing production design reminded me of Sternberg.

Seth Paxton · 07-12-2004, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Anyway, good for you for having it as a favourite. Had you seen it before pursuing the S & S list?

Yes, for a film class a few years ago. It made quite an impression. Another S&S film I saw during that class was A Man Escaped. Spent my money well on that course.

Quote:

though it was funny that my wife found it on one of the movie channels later that night after we had already watched it.

This has happened several times to me via Tivo or just surfing. Days or hours even after viewing a Netflix rental up pops the same film. Just happened with A Star is Born in fact.

$75!!! Sheesh, that is completely lame. I'm not in that boat luckily. I'm not sure how many more S&S are at the Indy MCPLibrary but they are all free at least (Palm Beach Story was my most recent from there). Then there is the IUPUI library too that I haven't even checked. The film dept has many LDs, esp Criterions, as well as tape, DVD, not sure about film (I think they only get rentals/borrows on those).

Sure as hell has me appreciating a lot more of these DVD releases.