Directors Why Does George Kaplan Hate This Movie Tournament? (1 Viewer)

[SteveGon]

Double-Abstain

 

[JohnRice]

Abstains all around. Only seen Blue Velvet, which I saw when it came out (after a class with DP Frederick Elmes, who went ot the same Photo school as me), and since then, I have not been able to sit through it. Not because it is "bad" but just because I can't tolerate the people. I can handle so many movies, but this one gets to me. I can't imagine how anyone actually "enjoys" watching it.


BTW, I think Frank Booth is incredibly repressed, just not in a conventional way.

 

[Rain]

Abstain.

The Red Shoes. I'm inclined to side with George on Do the Right Thing, it's just ugly and pessimistic to an extraordinary extreme.

 

[Bill McA]

Blue Velvet

Do the Right Thing

 

[Agee Bassett]

Blue Velvet
The Red Shoes

 

[Lew Crippen]

Blue Velvet shuts out Cries and Whispers, but Do the Right Thing only squeaks by The Red Shoes 3–2.

Blue Velvet and Do the Right Thing move on. The Sweet Sixteen field is now set. Today’s matches:


Round 2: Bracket 3:

Blow-Up advanced to the second round via a last minute shot in overtime, beating Persona.

Vanessa Redgrave (the girl chasing the photographer) and Sarah Miles (the girl next door to the photographer) pursue and are (mentally?) pursued by David Hemmings (Thomas, the photographer) as he winds his way through a murder (or not). Some describe the last scene as famous, while George considers it a letdown.

vs.

All That Heaven Allows which had an easy time beating out Withnail & I in the first round.

George probably does not like the the Rainer Werner Fassbinder remake of this film (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul either, but for many Douglas Sirk has captured via the mirrors and glittering textures in his cinematography, the tortured inner self of a woman who struggles to break free of society’s morals.


Round 2: Bracket 6:

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a dark drama that shut out a musical (Moulin Rouge) in the first round.

There has been some criticism of director Mike Nicols and DP Haskell Wexler’s tricks with the camera, but I don’t believe that is why George hates this movie. For me the cast (cinematography aside) does a fine job of bringing George (Richard Burton), Martha (Elizabeth Taylor), Nick (George Segal) and Honey (Sandy Dennis, especially fine) to life.

vs.

The Searchers had an easy time beating Broken Blossoms in the first round.

Brilliant cinematography, John Ford’s Monument Valley never looked more striking, but even DP, John Hoch’s camera is not enough to save this movie for George. Some (and I am one) believe that this movie distills the dichotomy of our national character via the struggle between civilization and frontier—a recurring theme in Ford’s movies (for me most perfectly realized in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

 

[JohnRice]

Guess I'll give Blow-Up a spin tonight so I can vote.

 

[SteveGon]

Double-Abstain

 

[Rich Malloy]

I don't envy you. I'm a big fan of several of Antonioni's films (and L'Avventura is one of my alltime favorites), but his cheesy attempts at portraying swinging London in "Blow-Up" are embarrassingly trite, and my brain still cannot get around the notion that a majority of you consider it a better film than Bergman's masterpiece, "Persona".

With the exception of "The Passenger", I don't think any post-"Red Desert" Antonioni is worth a damn. And after seeing "Beyond the Clouds" and his episode for "Eros", I honestly wish that Wim Wenders or whomever else might have sway will convince Michelangelo to stop making crappy films that do little but destroy his legacy.

 

[Walter Kittel]

abstain
The Searchers

- Walter.

 

[JohnRice]

Rich, I have to say, the little bit I saw of the first minutes in Blow-Up had me a bit confused. It looked almost campy and extremely dated, which is definitely not what I was expecting.

 

[Rich Malloy]

"Campy and extremely dated" are apt descriptions IMO, but if you're drawn to Antonioni's themes (which are not so terribly different than what we discussed re "Safe" earlier in this thread), then the film might still be redeemable for you. And for those not particularly inured to Antonioni's style, such elements as the cornball party scenes, the mod attire, and the ostensible mystery that forms the skeletal plot might be enough to get you from opening credits to tennis match. It's a helluva lot better than "Zabriskie Point" (Antonioni does moddish swingers a tad more convincingly than he does au natural hippies), but it's no "L'Avventura".

 

[Rain]

Possibly the only person not named John to work on this film , the DP's name is Winton.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Abstain

The Searchers (close)

 

[Agee Bassett]

All That Heaven Allows
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

 

[Lew Crippen]

An interesting perspective Rich—I normally don’t pay that much attention to criticisms of Antonioni’s movies, because so many people don’t care for any of his films (and for me, miss the point of his works altogether).

But since are a fan of L’Avventura (and I infer Il deserto rosso as well), I’ll concede that your view has some merit. As I happen to think that L’Avventura is a brilliant film, I’ll admit that I don’t care for Blow-Up, nearly as much, but I still think Blow-Up is a very fine movie indeed. Then again as I’ve not watched it for a while, your views may be more accurate than my memory.

This must give me a reason to watch it again.

 

[Bill McA]

Blow Up
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

 

[Lew Crippen]

There are two ties—I’ll wait a while and see if John watched Blow-Up and can vote—otherwise, I’’ll break the ties later this morning. Regardless the next matches are:


Round 2: Bracket 2:

Once Upon a Time in America has Robert De Niro as an old-time wiseguy in a film that is in the S&S list. Sergio Leone does a masterful job of blending the past and the present, dreams and reality (including the possibility that nothing is real—but all imagined) and betrayal and the betrayed. Is that fact that not much is concrete the reason that George hates this movie?

Sergio Leone’s movie advanced by easily beating Dancer in the Dark in the first round. It may have a harder time against a movie made by an even more iconic director.

vs.

Taxi Driver with the brilliant (and brilliantly cast) cast of Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle and Albert Brooke according to those in the know, was inspired by The Searchers, not unsurprisingly also in this tournement. Regardless of the truth of this assertion, Travis Bickle the outsider is shown with even more shocking clarity than is at all comfortable for the viewer. No doubt this is why George hates this movie.

Taxi Driver had an easy time meeting underdog Requiem for a Dream in the first round. Which De Niro will win this time?


Round 2: Bracket 7:

Shock Corridor, which as George accurately points out is filled with bad acting—perhaps it should win an ensemble, bad-acting award. Still the sets and cinematography present the asylum so well that it is not at all hard to believe that the newsman after a story becomes a member (in every sense) of that mental institute.

Fuller’s film beat Chicago the first time out. Next up—Jean-Luc Godard.

vs.

Alphaville a low-budget science fiction movie uses present day Paris to represent the Paris of the future, but not completely because of a lack of money or for convenience, but rather because the movie is (among other things) a commentary on the present. One may well think that Godard got it wrong (in his ideas of the present), but his view is hard to ignore.

This movie could only tie The Piano and needed an overtime to win in the first round.

 

[SteveGon]

Once Upon a Time in America
Abstain

 

[george kaplan]

Hey, Lew, do I get to vote?

If so,

Once Upon a Time in America
Alphaville