Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 95

Updated the list to include all the 344 films I know of that recieved two votes or more in the S&S 2002 poll

Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool
I was impressed with both of these Dutt films, but I preferred Kaagaz Ke Phool. Not just the songs (which are great in that film - the counting song was my fave) but the directorial style and story. The only mild fault is the melodramatic oppression/martyrdom in both films which I assume is partially a cultural thing. At some points you just want characters to take advantage of the opportunities in front of them to solve their own problems.

This puts me at 233 seen, 111 to go.


I just haven't been able to get excited about putting Puppetmaster in, and in the meantime I went through both Lost and Arrested Dvlp. Sea. 2, plus some Halloween pix and more recent releases.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew

This is an interesting, but ultimately flawed film. It has some interesting visuals, but there are just too many things that don't work.

First of all, in Genesis, there's a lot of A begetting B. But I'm pretty sure in Matthew, there's not a lot of A staring at B. But to watch this film, you'd think that every other line of the Gospel was "Zebedee stared at Andrew and James, Andrew stared at Zebedee and James, and James stared at Zebedee and Andrew."

But my biggest problem with this film is the portrayal of Jesus. I realize this is supposed to be a "liberal" take on Jesus, but it strikes me as a very "conservative" take. Sure, Jesus says to turn the other cheek, but he says it with such anger that you'd almost think he was being sarcastic. This is Jesus as old testament vengeful God, not the loving, forgiving Jesus that I read into those words when I read the bible.

Ordet's portrayal of "Jesus" is much more in line with my views, and I just can't watch Gospel According to St. Matthew without constantly thinking "but that's not how Jesus was", which pretty much ruins the movie for me.

224 down
129 left

Pather Panchail

Score: A

I liked this. Nice score by Ravi Shanker.....I mean Shankar. It's amazing that in spite of cultural differences, we can find similarities in the tones and melodies of music when conveying the emotional weight of a scene. I'm looking foward to the second film.

The score was definitely my favorite part. I found the film a bit disappointing overall, though I should really watch it again one of these days.

I'm spinning my wheels on the Challenge. Pickpocket is at the top of my list but has been out of stock. I could go ahead and rent Ashes and Diamonds but I've been putting it off for some reason. Still have Godfather III sitting forlornly on my shelf, unwatched. La Bete Humaine in a few months from Criterion. That's about it. I'm wondering if I'll even be able to break 300 next year?

#286 Masculin féminin (1966)

Jean-Pierre Léaud stars as Paul, an idealistic teenage intellectual hoping for a relationship with pop star Madeleine (Chantal Goya, a singer who had a hit on the French charts at the time of filming). Jean-Luc Godard's incisive portrait of 1966 France beat today's critics of consumerism and sex culture to the punch 30 years ago. Its teens are poised on the brink of a sexual revolution that will irrevocably change the male-female dynamic and culturally on the brink of a consumer revolution that will overwhelm political idealism.

Godard may portray a bit too much of his own cynicism and wounded viewpoint, what with the boys talking strikes and spraypainting political slogans while the girls are into shopping and pop music, but as with many of his 60's films, it displays a comic touch and sensitive emotional quality that is too rarely recognized today. Jean-Pierre Leaud's rush to the projection booth to explain that the film they are watching is being shown in the wrong aspect ratio would warm the cockle's of any HTF'ers heart. While the pop music sung by Madeline lends an airy optimism not present in the underlying narrative. An optimism that will be shattered in May '68 when Coca-Cola dealt a knockout blow to Marx. A-

I've been thinking about this, and I've decided to dramatically modify my participation in this. I always thought, as did others I think, that this was the official Sight & Sound list, and I guess it is in a way, but not in the sense that I had thought. They list their top 10 lists (one for directors and one for critics), and of course, I've seen all those, and then they extend both those lists, but only down to ones that got at least 4 votes.

Now, you can find on their website the list (or one very close to it), of all the movies that garnered even 1 vote. But given how utterly ridiculous some of those one-offs are, I can't really justify spending more time trying to see those. The ones on the major list, those are obviously of some agreement important films, but too many of the others are just pet films by one critic or another. And while some of those may also be truly important films, if so, I believe they'll also show up on one of the other top 100 or top 1000 lists I'm looking at.

So, for me at least, I'm redefining my list to the following that I haven't seen:

The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Mizoguchi)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls)
Pierrot le fou (Godard)
Sansho Dayu (Mizoguchi)
Shoah (Lanzmann)
The Travelling Players (Angelopoulos)
Two or Three Things I Know about Her (Godard)
Persona (Bergman)
Pickpocket (Bresson)

so for me, I now view it as 9 to go, and once that's done, I'm not going to worry about not getting to some obscure films like When it Rains.

Thi,

In some ways this was just a practical decision, as the many (most) of the films I haven't seen off of your master list are damned hard to find anyway, and many of the better (more famous?) films I'm leaving off my list I'll end up seeing anyway (e.g., Bob le Flambeur is in one of Ebert's Great Movie books, and in the Criterion Collection, as well as another book of 'great movies' that I have). I just realized that the 2012 list would be out before I could get to all the films on your longer list, and this really just for me, a reprioritization of my new film viewing.

Maybe others misunderstood as you did, but I've always recognized this was a fusion of the films receiving at least 2 votes and not in any way an "official" list.

I would still have 4 to go on the list you posted George. I'll go ahead and carry on as I was, though I haven't put any real effort into trying to get further along for some time and have owed 2 more reviews for a couple of months.

for a good while now I've focused on the film with at least five votes, and my goal is the films with four votes, those with three and two are just gravy. :p


George's unseen movies and my predictions of George's reactions

The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Mizoguchi)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls)
Pierrot le fou (Godard) haven't seen
Sansho Dayu (Mizoguchi) (depressing as all hell)
Shoah (Lanzmann) not sure, probably
The Travelling Players (Angelopoulos) haven't seen
Two or Three Things I Know about Her (Godard) probably
Persona (Bergman) very curious, probably
Pickpocket (Bresson) haven't seen.

#287 Pickpocket (1959) - I found Robert Bresson's existential tale of a lonely pickpocket quite similar to his prison film A Man Escaped. I appreciate his technical mastery a great deal in both films, but the lead character is so remote that I have a difficult time investing much emotional involvement in the film. Once again I find I appreciate his stylistic uniqueness, while at the same time feeling he'll never be a favorite of mine. - B

#289 Vidas Secas (1963) - Vidas Secas, or Barren Lands, launched the Brazilian Cinema Nuovo. It is a neo-realist type film adapted from a novel about an itinerant family and their faithful dog, Baikelea, who find work herding a rancher's cattle (In a DVD extra, an NYU professor compares the film to Ford/Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath). While trying to remain happy together admidst dreams of living like "normal" people, grinding poverty and a precarious social standing remain omnipresent in their lives.

The film includes a number of striking shots and long takes, illuminating the family against lonely backdrops of dry land and grey skies. The underlying story and characters are too naturalistic for my taste. The little drama present in the film is ill-defined, leaving me wondering why the two major events of the film occur. The plight of the family is a moving one, yet the film's execution made it a mostly dry experience. There were several times when I felt I was supposed to feel something, only I wasn't. There are a number of shots and scenes involving the cute dog clearly meant to evoke feelings and sympathy for the animal, but they never approach similar material in Umberto D. - B-

I still owe a review for #288 The Passenger

Probably won't see any more until Criterion's next S&S releases.

My Neighbor Totoro -
TCM OAR/OSL cablecast
New Disney translation
193 S&S film
Sublime perfection. One of the most perfect films on this list.

I am in awe.

I won’t be in danger. After all, what have I done? Only my duty.


Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist examines many of his favorite themes, sex, power and politics. With Fascist Italy (and France) as a backdrop, Vittorio Straro’s cinematography is simply stunning. If this movie has a flaw it is that the thematic core of the film, is a bit too facile.

A must-see.

I saw 'A Matter of Life and Death' on film on Thursday. It was transcendent. I've moved the film into my top three, just behind Lawrence of Arabia just ahead of the Apartment.

Three times in nine months and I'm in even more awe of this film now than I was when I first saw it. Just a perfect, perfect film.

Pierrot Le Fou -
projected video
03/06/2006
194th Sight and Sound film

This was, I believe, my fourth Godard, and the first one I actually liked pretty much all of it. It's funny, clever dialogue, zips along for about 95% of the run time and gloriously doesn't care if the film and narrative get jumbled up and out of order. The film starts out poorly, but once you get past the colorful party scene and Pierrot (ferdinand!) and Marianne get on the road it takes off.

Adam

Persona

Fasansfull, Anspråksfull, Tråkig, Overskattad, Meningslös, Ohygglig

You can’t sing a lick


Nashville is filled with truths, small and large, and also with self-delusion, sometimes purposeful and often not. Having watched this movie on its initial reease and several times since, I am now able to view it without trying yo consider its meaning (not that it has a singular one), the themes and allusions overlap as much as does the dialogue.

As always it is a treat to see something so complex and yet so much fun.

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

#290 Accattone (1961) - The debut film of legendary Italian poet/novelist/director Pier Paolo Pasolini, the film tells the story of Vittorio Accattone, a pimp living in a Roman slum. He is supported by his "girl" in comfort relative to his surroundings, but when she is imprisoned, he loses his sole source of income. Selling his possessions bit by bit, mocked by his friends, spurned by his already estranged family, he has lost hope when he encounters Stella. A virginal, impossibly innocent beauty, he both charms her and is charmed by her. His attempts to support her will have tragic consequences.

Made in the Neo-Realist tradition, Accattone details the endemic poverty present in Italy in almost hopelessly bleak terms. Set in a drab, grey world where children have only rocks and broken bottles to play with while adults amuse themselves with crazy bets, death games, and black humor, one gets the feeling that this is a world and a situation unchanged for thousands of years. Given the only jobs available pay extremely low wages, there seems to be little difference in the lives of lower class workers and the unemployed.

Using non-professional actors and real locations for authenticity gives the sense of soul-crushing reality evoked in Visconti's La Terra Trema. Pasolini's one break with tradition is in using an incongruous Bach soundtrack that at times sounds like the sort of music that would be played at the ballroom dances of The Leopard. When the music grows more dirge-like it works, but at other times took me out of the reality of the film. However, the film always drew me back in by focusing on people, who, whether good, bad or simply human are locked in a cruel, unending cycle of evil. - B+

Still owe a review of The Passenger. At this point I think I'll wait until I have a chance to view the new DVD. In addition to also watching Lacombe Lucien which I'll try and get to writing about in the next few days, a few other S&S films have recently come into my possession thanks to a mysterious benefactor and am anticipating Criterion's release of Ozu's Late Spring.

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

#291 Lacombe Lucien (1974) - Set in Vichy France during 1944, Louis Malle's film tells the story of a young man who, rebuffed in his attempt to join the Resistance, joins the Gestapo instead. While enjoying the fruits of his new found power, he becomes acquainted with a rich Jew and his lovely daughter, who have bribed a local official to keep their identity safe.

A story about the corrupting influence of power and the arrogance of those who wield it, the film contains powerful ideas. It is beautifully shot and the technical qualities are impeccable. It even includes music by Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club du France! Yet while it delivers some excellent dramatic material, I never found the movie rivetting. As in Au Revoir Les Enfants, I didn't find the lead performance more than adequate and I never developed strong feelings about him either way, thus inhibiting my ability to become absorbed in the film. Still it has enough positive attributes to make the film worth seeing. - B

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

#292 - Oedipus Rex (1967) - I've only read abridged/simplified versions of the original story, but I'm guessing it feels a great deal different than this film version by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It begins with a prologue set in prewar Italy where a father is jealous that his wife's attentions are being diverted by a new child. The film than switches gears to the ancient world; an ancient world quite unlike the classical Greece we may have been expecting. A description couldn't do justice to the elaborate head gear Pasolini dresses the characters in. Clothing is quite simple and poor; nothing like the flowing white togas we usually see. The architecture appears Mesopotamian rather than Greek. Weaponry and armor are a mishmash of ancient technology and fantasy.

But setting and dressing are only part of the attraction. As always, Pasolini brings his own poetic and artistic sensibilities to the scripting and acting. The tragic nature of the story is balanced with the peculiarities of how scenes are staged and the way lines are often delivered as if on stage. The film captures a real sense of chaos as few other films have. The sexual aspect of the story is there, but treated much more matter-of-factly than as a hackles raising sensationalist taboo. Pasolini is more interested in the cause of behavior than the behavior itself. His film reflects a view of humanity as inherently crazed - the Oedipus Complex not restricted to mere sexual craving, but a human desire for chaos, self-loathing, and self-destruction.

While I still have a number of his films left to see, next to his masterpiece The Gospel According to St. Matthew, I found this to be Pasolini's most powerful work. - A-

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

They wouldn’t be doing it, if it was dangerous.


Short Cuts is typical of a certain type of Robert Altman movie, most especially its predecessor, Nashville. Based on several Raymond Carver, short stories, it is not so successful in its realization as Nashville, but then perhaps Los Angeles is harder to capture.

This movie won’t make a convert of anyone who does not care for Altman, but for those who do, it is pure gold.

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

Shoah

This film should be mandatory viewing for every student in film school. It has a very, very important message to teach them. That there is a huge difference between a film that is leisurely paced, and one that is poorly edited. This film certainly falls into the latter category. Which is a real shame, since there's some fascinating and compelling stuff here - stuff that should keep a person riveted for 90 minutes to 2 hours, but instead, is lost as the person loses concetration over interminably slow pans over countryside that take longer to finish than WW2 did.

If you want to argue that it's an important historical document, then this thing should have been completely unedited, hundreds of hours long. Just like a complete collection of all the writings of Thomas Jefferson would be an important collection for a library or museum. But as an attempt to put this in a format to show to people, the editing was very poor, IMO. A real shame, since many fewer people will bother to watch this and learn from it than if it were better edited. Again, if you argue against further editing it down, I have to wonder why it was edited to it's current length at all.

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

My Neighbor Totoro

I'll just admit I don't get it. This film was just...blah... It had the usual Miyazaki anime pros & cons (beautiful backgrounds, horrible character animation), but with no story per se. Not horrible to watch, but not very memorable either. I finished this about 5 minutes ago, and I've already forgotten most of it.

Bottom line - much better than most of this list, but hardly deserving of a spot.

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

I'm either flabbergasted or not at all surprised that George didn't like Totoro, and I can't decide which. I would have thought his tastes would be more predisposed to liking it than Lew or Brook would have, both of whom, I believe posted very positive reviews of it in this thread.

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

I normally write that I can’t speak for someone else. In this case I’ll venture out on a limb and note that Brook and I are pretty eclectic in our film (and music) tastes.

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

definitely, but as a gentle, entertaining film it feels much more mainstream than eclectic. I'd say it's definitely the most similar to Pixar's films of any of Miyazaki's output, and better than most of their films even.

Re: Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club

The Hidden Fortress

I was particularly looking forward to this one, since it's a big influence on Star Wars. Well, I do see how those two characters inspired C-3P0 and R2-D2, and maybe it's just cause we don't hear R2 speak, but man, I love the robots, while those two peasants were just the most annoying, stupid, self-centered, irritating characters imaginable. More like Jar-Jar than R2 and C3P0. And R2 and C3P0 (and even Jar-Jar) actually were helpful in their films. These two peasants were just a pain in the ass that kept trying to abscond with the gold, no matter what had happened or how many times they'd 'learned a lesson'. They definitely ruined this movie for me.