Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 8

I saw Spirited Away this weekend and was absolutely blown away. I was skeptical that Disney’s best could ever be equaled, but this film certainly is the equal of ‘Snow White’.

A lovely, enchanting film and one which I believe will eventually considered profound.

I would expect that having some understanding of Japanese culture will help in some of the film’s subtleness, it is certainly not necessary for anyone’s enjoyment.

Watching this film certainly makes a good case for dubbing, rather than subtitles. The film is so extraordinarily rich in detail, that I would have resented any time not spent looking at the detail of the world constructed and into which we are drawn. Perhaps repeated viewings will allow me to wish for subtitles.

Highest recommendation.

just caught a bunch of Bergman flicks, so I'm up to 82. I guess Bergman's just too meditative for me, even though I liked Seventh Seal to a degree, not to mention death after death after death...it gets to ya I just was never touched by the surrealism in Cries and Whispers

That's funny, while Bergman at first struck me as too contemplative, I'm finding that on reflection I like his stuff more than the more overt work by Fellini. There is something about Bergman that gets into my skin and keeps me reflecting on his films.


But right now, thanks in part to my Film History class, as well as some other timely viewings, I'm really into German Expressionst (1915-1930) era of film. There are just so many great filmmakers from this period and so much interaction and sharing between them all. I think it was a golden era for filmmaking. Even American and British filmmakers were exchanging with the UFA artists (Hitchcock even did some early work in Germany and the influence shows).

And Murnau is at the top of that list for me (with Lang close behind). I just added Nosferatu to my S&S list, bringing my total to 128. It's just an incredible film and one of the best versions ever made of Stoker's work. Murnau had such a great eye and was able to create very dense works full of imagery and symbolism without sacrificing a narrative engagement.

Murnau was also one of the best silent directors period. I'm very much in agreement with his ideas of limiting the intertitles to the bare minimum, instead using the visuals and acting to tell the story.

I hope you get a chance to see Murnau's final film, Seth, Tabu, a great work combining his expressionism with the emotional realism of using non-professional actors in natural settings. Beautiful film and an excellent Milestone DVD.

Bergman too contemplative for you? That's my favorite thing about his films, but those aren't the only kinds of films he could make. Check out Smiles Of A Summer Night a wonderful comedy that was a huge influence on Woody Allen, Summer With Monika which feels like a Fassbinder film 20 years early, Fanny & Alexander, or his spectacular staging of The Magic Flute.

I've watched two more recently bringing my total to 62:

Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Bob le flambeur (1955)

To which you could apply the word, ‘fanciful’.

L'Avventura (B+)
Les Enfants du paradis...watched the first disc last night, didn't think it was spread over 2 discs, so i won't be able to finish this one for a few days, doh, sometimes i hate netflixs.
as of now i have seen 55

Rio Bravo (A). Just finished this one and i think it's my fav john wayne so far. 56

It's already in the queue.

Great, make sure you listen to the commentary Seth. It's much more historical than aesthetic, but Tabu is a great story with it's troubled production history of multiple snafu's, lawsuits and smuggled negative and the whole Murnau-Robert Flaherty relationship.

Yeah, I'm doing a paper on Sunrise for my film history class so I'm all over everything Murnau lately. I was watching Faust late last night till I fell asleep (it was very late and I was pushing it). I think I might like Faust more than the other "big 3" from him and would put it right there with Metropolis and Dr. Caligari, though when I get that Sunrise disc in I'm sure I will be reminded of just how much I loved that film too.

But his sense of character and imagary is uncanny. In Faust when he depicts Satan as a giant looming over the village...those are the kinds of images that are missing from almost all modern film. It makes me appreciate just what Coppola was able to bring back for his version of Dracula. FFC really did give us a look at a modern version of the styles found in the films of the UFA studio filmmakers.

So much of film today, especially effects, is about the literal rather than the metaphorical. It eliminates a huge arena for the art to work within.

Anyway, commentaries, books, I'm checking into all of it (though I will probably see Tabu after my paper is long since turned in).

How do you guys rank Murnau's films that you've seen? I'd go with:

Sunrise, Faust, The Last Laugh, Nosferatu, Tabu, City Girl, in that order.

All were good, with Sunrise and Faust really hitting my socks off. I tried to look for some literature on Murnau after seeing some of his films. There doesn't seem to be a lot. The only one I read through was the BFI Classics series on Sunrise (I didn't find the book particularly insightful; it went through the dialectical aspects of the film, but it was akin to a laundry list instead of providing good analysis to why the film should be looked at as superb or important). Any suggestions, Seth?

Trois Couleurs: Bleu

Mood, mood, mooooooood.... not since Mulholland Drive have I been so absorbed in a movie whose essence I knew I wouldn't get in one viewing. You see, for me a movie that relies mainly on subtext MUST get the mood right in order offset the intellectual frustration it can present. When I am less concerned with what things mean because of the emoational connection, the movie has succeded, the eventual intellectual payoff from repeat viewings it just icing on the cake.

What's even better: the intellectual payoff came with the extras on the DVD. My second viewing is going to be a fantastic experience.

Blanc is next. And I cannot wait to watch Rouge again. Even back then in my "movie infancy" I saw it's greatness.

--
Holadem

That spider was as big as a Buick

Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s breakthrough (at least to mainstream audiences) film, which I watched again for the first time since its initial release.

I had really forgotten how much of the film I remembered. The dialogue is even now, witty and fresh, and it is as I remembered—a considerable testament to Allen’s writing skills. But as always with Allen, his directing is all over the place. But I am impressed at how much attention Allen, the director, give to Allen, the writer. We get time to appreciate the rapid-fire repartee between Allen (the actor) and Diane Keaton.

I won’t stay away from this film for so long, next time. But it is time for a good transfer—the DVD I rented was not particularly up to today’s standards.

Those who can’t do, teach. And those who can’t teach, teach gym. Those who can’t do anything were assigned to my school.

Murnau, I'd go Tabu, The Last Laugh, Nosferatu, Sunrise, Faust

Tabu is the most recent that I've seen so is freshest, but I would probably rank it almost interchangeably with The Last Laugh. I've only seen Sunrise once (I own the DVD's of the other 4 and have watched them multiple times) and that was a poor VHS dubbed by Seth from Fox Movie Channel, so that may partially explain the lower ranking.

The great French director Eric Rohmer wrote a book on Murnau in the mid-70's, though I don't think it's ever been translated into English. I believe he called Murnau "the world's greatest director, and Tabu was his greatest film".

I can't go quite that far, but he is definitely my favorite director of the silent era.

Lew, I don't think I agree about Allen's direction being "all over the place" but I certainly think Annie Hall is wonderful (my 2nd favorite after Stardust Memories). I just love the conversation about Fellini. I feel like that a lot.

I don’t think I can explain why I sort of feel Allen’s direction in this film is ‘all over the place’, without sounding like the guy pontificating about Fellini. But I’ll try.

In general, while I enjoyed Allen’s earlier films, I see most of them as fun and cleaver, but perhaps trivial (no bad thing). But with Annie Hall he has moved to a place where he forces us to examine ourselves, our conduct and our relationships. By the time Allen gets to (say) Crimes and Misdemeanors, his direction is sure handed and he never seems to put a foot wrong. But in Annie Hall, I feel that we get quiet, contemplative shots of Allen and Keaton against the Brooklyn Bridge and shots of the all the conservation at the dinner table, or where Allen and Keaton are engaged in brisk dialogue.

I know what he is showing us, but it seems a bit false to me.

I just think that his direction has not quite caught up with his writing (at this point).

On the other hand, he gives us plenty of time to enjoy the give-and-take—but not too much time. That is handled very well indeed.

Here's a couple of books I'm reading for my Sunrise report.

Hollywood Destinies (Graham Petrie) has a section on Murnau. The book is about European directors working in America.

Passport to Hollywood (James Morrison) is also about Europeans in Hollywood and gets specifically into Sunrise for the first chapter.

And there are the Lotte Eisner books - Murnau and The Haunted Screen (concerning German Expressionism in general).

And of course the great BFI Classics series has that book for Sunrise which Kirk mentioned.

Dudley Andrew's Film in the Aura of Art has a section on Sunrise (as well as L'Atalante and Broken Blossoms).

And I'm looking at Jo Leslie Collier's book From Wagner to Murnau which is mentioned in the BFI book IIRC.


The sources for Murnau specific literature written in English is rather limited I've found.


Right now I would list the four I've seen in this order:

Faust, Sunrise, Nosferatu, The Last Laugh

Each are amazing films and that time period of filmmaking is one of the best IMO.

My Sunrise/Murnau story. This was the first Murnau film I had ever seen. I saw it in great conditions. It was in a theater with an LD projected at large. I knew nothing of this film, or much about Murnau. I walked out of the theater convinced this was some kind of life changing event. I look at that screening as one of my most memorable movie going events in my life.

Almost exactly a year later, I saw it under the exact same conditions, and fell in love with it again. Since then I've seen it only once more on a library VHS (already sent out the Fox Studio Classics stubs for the DVD).

I guess what I want to say is that I often find my experience with particular filmmakers and their first films to be a bar setting effect. The first Keaton film I saw was Sherlock Jr. I happen to think it's his most brilliant film, but I realize my judgment might be clouded. Same with Seven Samurai, and with Sunrise. Every other Murnau film has had to compete with this love affair I had with Sunrise. :b

So, Seth, which do you recommend the most?

Ok, after my fanboy gushing, back to regular programming. Added October.

The good first: the sequence on the bridge with the horse is maybe Eisenstein's most effective montage sequence. This is amazing stuff; the imagery of the horse on the bridge alone is striking, then add in all the cuts that extend time and it becomes extremely powerful.

The rest of the film doesn't measure up to this sequence. It seems like the events depicted in Strike and Potemkin were more self-contained while October tries to cover a lot of ground. It's a lot denser in storyline. I don't think Eisenstein was very successful in telling the story. There is a confusion here and there, and often the story doesn't generate our sympathy (I thought both Strike and Potemkin were very successful in this department). And despite his active cutting, the film seems to drag more than the other two, too. Of the Eisenstein films I've seen, which also includes the Alexander Nevsky and the two Ivan the Terrible films, I'd say October is my least of them.

Hi,

After watching the discussions going on in this list for the brief time I've been a member here at the home theater forums I decided that this was just the thing to inspire a little bit of catching up on my classic film watching, so that said I thought I'd get stuck in.

This evening, to ease myself into the flow I sat down and watched the classic Polanski film 'Chinatown'.

It's hard to tread too far into this film without giving away much of the plot so I'll only recommend it to those of you who haven't seen it yet.

The near flawless performances from all of the central cast, beautiful cinematography (the atmosphere of impressive heat generated by the long bright shots of dusty LA is quite something) as well as the thought provoking, very un-Hollywood, ending all make this a film to watch.

It also contains possibly the creepiest cameo by a director in the history of film.

out of 5.

.

Kirk, I haven't read through all of them yet, but I did finish up the BFI book. Eh, not as good as I wanted it to be, a little scattered in thoughts and a few ideas that weren't defended as well. One idea she touched on that was solid, insightful and made a lot of sense was the connection between Murnau and the Blaue Reiter group of artists.

One of their major themes was the idea of creation born from merged opposites. This occurs in many ways within Murnau's work, such as the contrasts of city and country in Sunrise. However it also occurs in Murnau's refusal to either follow traditional modernist ideas such as the city being "bad" (the couple resolves their differences in the city) or to ignore those same modernist ideas (it is the city woman that brings the temptation and evil to their world).

I think Mrs. Fischer nailed that point. But there are too many other points that are quite vague or even confused.

Right now my favorite book/chapter is the one in Morrison's Passport to Hollywood. He touches on some similar themes of contradictions, but also goes into other ideas as well. He just writes with more focus and clearer language. He also references a lot less, only when really needed to support his own points rather than listing everyone else's.

I haven't read much of Dudley Andrew's Film in the Aura of Art, but I have read several other things by him and he is an outstanding film theorist (Yale) and writer. He also has a nice introduction to film theory book for those interested - The Major Film Theories: An Introduction.


Of course this sort of writing rarely contains wacky anecdotes from the film's production. They are more focused on the content of the film and the subtext that it bears. However, you will find some nuggets of info on the making of or presentation of the film in there.



And Kirk, I have similar experiences though I sometimes end up liking the 2nd or 3rd film I see more. I like Rushmore more than Anderson's other 2 films. I flip-flop between QTs Dogs and Pulp Fiction. And I'd say I prefer The General to Sherlock Jr.

But my favorite Hitch is either Rear Window or NxNW and I saw Pyscho long before seeing either of those. I also like Rashomon and Ikiru more than 7 Sam, but I saw 7 Sam first.

I think your first introduction has an effect, but you can still be impressed by another film more later. It sure is a great feeling seeing one of those films that change your life though.

I've seen some, but not all of Bergman's films, but with the exception of Cries & Whispers, all of them were many, many years ago, and I didn't count them as having been seen for this challenge. As some of you know, there is no film I've ever seen that I dislike more than Cries & Whispers, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing the other Bergman films, although my very vague memories of his other films were neither positive nor negative, just unmemorable.

The Seventh Seal

I got tired of waiting for this to show up on TCM, so I just went out and rented it. I fired up a batch of popcorn and started watching. Except for one part that I think drags, I thought this was an excellent film. It goes without saying that I found it light years better than Cries & Whispers, and I actually liked it enough that I'm going to add it to my collection.

The film really only raises two questions for me at this point.

How the hell did the guy who made Seventh Seal make such a bad movie as Cries & Whispers?

How the hell did the guy who made Cries & Whispers make such a good film as the Seventh Seal?

Death might hold the answer, but I'm going to be too busy fending off the attacks here on my opinion of Cries & Whispers to worry about him.

And this brings me up to 135 watched.

I actually did laugh out loud when I read this, which was embarrassing because I had to explain the joke to the underling who shares my office. "Ingmar Who?"

*sigh* Callow youth.

If it makes you feel any better George I agree wholeheartedly with you about Cries and Whispers, can't stand it.

I even prefer 'The Virgin Spring' (not on our list) to C&W despite Bergman himself dismissing it as an 'inferior remake of Rashomon' which brings me neatly onto this weekends viewing...

Rashomon

Wow. I was blown away by this film. The characterization is excellent, Toshiro Mifune is on top form playing essentially 4 variations on the same role, each subtly different from the other whilst clearly remaining the same man. Other performances are just as impressive, indeed it says something of the caliber of the cast that Machiko Kyo actually manages to upstage even Mifune's fabulous performance.

Combined with Kurosawa's brilliantly evocative cinematography this film is truly a treat for the eyes.

I can't recommend it enough.

out of 5.

I liked The Virgin Spring quite a bit, but I have to agree with Bergman's appraisal.

And as the discussion of Rashomon doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon, let me add my little film-school experience with the picture from this past year to Adam's. The professor--though he seemed a little choked about it--showed the movie on VHS, as always, but also DUBBED!. Having the DVD on my shelf, I said 'fuck this' (though not in so many words) and went home with a friend from the class, smoked a joint out of educational spite, and watched the Criterion disc.

After watching it--she'd never seen it before--we watched a little bit of the dub track; shockingly, in the scene where Shimura testifies to us/them, his face and own voice read nervousness, but the dub actor speaks the scene so obviously like he's hiding something that it basically gave away the character's secret prematurely.

Then, while discussing the film, the professor had no idea who Akutagawa was (claiming the story--yeah, just one--was hundreds of years old), or even how to spell Kurosawa. And an example I can recall of how my classmates felt was:

"I liked that guy...the bandit.....he was funny."

How do you spell the sound of me vomiting, crying, and laughing contemptfully at the same time? ...bloody film class--


Anyhow, I'm pretty sure I've seen at least a handful off this new list, and I think a couple off of the '92 list, but I don't have the tallied pages around at the moment. I'll be back in the next couple of days to update my total.

To Kill a Mockingbird

It’s strange how much this film seems to have faded from the general public view since it was made. For anyone not familiar it is a child’s view of the South (and its racism) in the 30s. Harper Lee used this device fairly effectively in her novel, but I think the film an improvement over the book.

Certainly the cinematography is of a very high order and Mulligan takes his time (the right amount) in telling his story—so much so, and so little (in an obvious sense) happens that today this would have to be an independent production to make it to the screen.

If you have not seen this film, watch for Robert Duvall at the end. Who knew? What a performance from such a small, limited part.

I thought that the commentary on the DVD was not the best. About 30 minutes worth of information packed into 2+ hours.

Brings me to 84.

As you know we disagree on Cries and Whispers, although I would readily concede that it is not one of Bergman’s ‘A’ films. Strangely, though I like The Seventh Seal, I don’t think it is one of his masterpieces either.

Still, glad that you liked this one George—but be careful, you might begin to actually ‘like’ some of these ‘dour, Northern Europeans’.

Strangers on a Train - Revisiting a favorite. This is one of my favorite Hitchcock films. I got a chance to see it projected onto the big screen. Hitchcock puts so much into this nicely directed and written film, it makes a very quite 100 minutes. I love the scene when Guy sees Bruno at the top of the steps from the taxi. (previously counted)


Seven Samurai - I can’t believe this is my first time to see this all the way through. What more can I add to this. Seeing it in a theater with a good size audience was a treat. Kurosawa keeps things moving in a laying out everything for the audience with Kambei’s clear strategy, Takashi Shimura in a performance that deserves as much acclaim as Mifune’s.


Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) - A very entertaining film from one of my favorite directors. I enjoyed the way Truffaut mixes and has fun with combining all of the different types of genre. Add to that the music, wonderful performance by Aznavour, and a probably his most Hitchcock inspired story make this a very good film.

Belle de Jour

This puts me at the 25% mark with 85 seen.

One of Buñuel’s masterpieces, where nothing much seems to happen on the surface, but everything happens in the mind of the characters, most especially the protagonist. And what a mind she has, as we are shown one bit after another of her fantasy life and her real life as she ventures from being a moderately upper-class housewife into a world of part-time prostitution.

Buñuel manages to keep and increase the tension in this film from the beginning to the end, which is an incredible achievement for a film about sex that has no sex scenes.

Highly recommended.

Hey I like to keep an open mind. I'll even admit it's possible I might someday find a Godard film I like (but I'm not holding my breath ).