Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 94

Adam_S · 07-23-2005, 11:16 AM

Wild Strawberries -

OARDVD
07/22/2005
187th S&S film

Damn good film about life and marriage from Bergman. In fact it gets better the more you think about it. Director/actor Victor Sjostrom (whose "The Wind" is on this list) plays Isak, an aged and highly thought of medical professor. Isak is about to recieve an honorary something or other so he has to leave his lonely home and venture (with his daughter in law) down to Lund to recieve it, he meets up with his past, his mother, and some carefree Hitchhikers.

I'm reminded of Donen's Two for the Road, except that for Bergman, each couple we encounter, be it in an explicit reminesence or dream, or in the real life 'journey' seems to represent some aspect or period of Isak's life. In fact, the journey itself raises the question of whether or not the entire thing is a dream, certainly the journey seems more realistically like a dream than the evidently symbolic and clearly delineated dreams scattered throughout the film. Perhaps Bergman is suggesting that life is the dreaming that lets us go on living.

I wrote a much better review for this film last night, but it was lost to an infuriating fouled up internet connection.

george kaplan · 07-25-2005, 06:00 PM

Stray Dog

An interesting film in many ways, though ultimately, not one I'll be watching again.

My biggest problem with it was the pacing. Hell, I'm already done watching the movie, and Mifune is still walking through that amusement park!

Because of the slow pace, I had plenty of time to think about things about the film, but outside the story. How weird it was to see Mifune in a suit. How all the music was western. How this film, taking place 4 years after the end of WW2, talked about the war a lot, yet you never saw one shred of evidence that there was an occupation force there. I don't know how things were structured in those days, but wouldn't a ball park be a logical place to see at least one off duty soldier? Perhaps baseball games were off-limits. But mostly I realized how goddamned hot Tokyo was.

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137 left

george kaplan · 07-26-2005, 05:58 PM

The Conformist

Well Brook, here's one whom you don't need to worry about my stealing from your Directors Checklist.

218 down
135 left

Seth Paxton · 07-28-2005, 01:14 PM

The Wind Will Carry Us

I felt the same way here as I did with Taste of Cherry. You have these beautiful shots and direction that seems pretty solid in terms of how scenes are shot and edited together. But on the other hand there just isn't much going on here and most of the scenes feel excessively padded to create a feature length film out of a short.

It doesn't help that I don't know the culture well enough to pick up any of the more subtle comments. Then again I found a few of his social comments to be rather overt and a little simplistic in that "arty but I'm being deep" sort of way.

The similarities between this and Cherry are almost annoying. It could almost be footage from the same film at times, with the same long takes of an SUV winding its way around a rugged mountain, long close-ups of the driver from the passenger seat as he drives, TONS of off screen dialog that I'm sure means something but borders on feeling like a gimmick used when you couldn't afford a bigger cast.

Just the epitome of a dry film IMO.

rich_d · 08-01-2005, 07:49 PM

George,

O.T. ... how did you manage to catch The Key (1934)? Was it on cable?

george kaplan · 08-01-2005, 08:55 PM

Quote:

how did you manage to catch The Key (1934)? Was it on cable?

Adam_S · 08-11-2005, 06:54 PM

A Star is born -

OARDVD
08/08/2005
188th S&S film

Not up to the level of the great musicals (singin in the rain, seven brides for seven brothers, sound of music, my fair lady) , but a damned fine film with outstanding performances from Mason and Garland and one killer song (the man that got away). However it's overlong and a bit tedious at times, and if you've seen the much more compact 1930s version you can't help comparing this one unfavorably in terms of pace, though this one does a much better job of realistically establishing Esther's character.

The final moment, "mrs. Norman Maine" is better than rest of the movie.

Adam_S · 08-15-2005, 11:58 AM

Nashville -

08/14/2005
OARDVD
189th S&S film

This is Nashville! Sing Something!

This particular seventies film doesn't hold as well for those of us that weren't part of that generation. Interesting film, but nothing I'm compelled to see again because there was no characterization to speak of or plot or story worth mentioning. I didn't even get any meta-purpose from the film, except maybe that Nashville is one of those supposed heartland pure places that are every bit as corrupt as everywhere else--oooooh how deep, now try it without being snide.

Rio Bravo -

08/14/2005
OARDVD
190th S&S film

An excellent western that unfortunately has a girl gumming up a rather taut and tense plot and narrative. The male leads are all outstanding and Hawks is in top form here, though I'd give a slight edge to Red River.

Oddly enough, these two films bring me to only 150 films left on this list, which is exactly how many I have left on the AFI list right now after watching them as well.

Armin Jäger · 08-15-2005, 04:39 PM

Quote:

RIO BRAVO An excellent western that unfortunately has a girl gumming up a rather taut and tense plot and narrative. The male leads are all outstanding and Hawks is in top form here, though I'd give a slight edge to Red River.

Adam, RIO BRAVO is anything, but certainly not dominated by a taut and tense plot. Hawks's films have a strong tendency to loosen the plot and to develop single scenes. In RIO BRAVO and even more HATARI you have a general situation (guarding the prison, hunting animals) around which these scenes develop and Angie Dickinson is absolutely essential to the film's microcosm with men, their rituals (singing), their friendships, jobs and their relations to women.