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

[Rob Tomlin]

Is that why they both suck?

 

[SteveGon]

Hey, I'm from Texas!

But then again, so is [political comment deleted as I wouldn't want to violate forum rules]. Argh.

 

[george kaplan]

Again I'm not following the conversation, but I consider myself to be from California (born & raised) and proud of it. I'm just living in Texas.

 

[JohnRice]

Oh! That's an improvement!!

I'm not following the conversation. I'm just responding to it.

Probably the strangest experience of my life happened in California in 1989. I was sitting on a plane at the gate, waiting while people boarded, when a huge earthquake hit. That was one freaky experience. The plane just started shaking like crazy. I looked out the window and could see waves travelling down the runway. This was in San Jose, which is only about 30 or 40 miles from the epicenter. Then, we took off and flew over San Francisco on our way to Seattle and could see all the collapced roadways and fires. surreal and unpleasant.

 

[Rain]

Abstain again.

Chicago is the only one I've seen and I wouldn't say I hate it, but I don't love it either. Best Picture? No. And I can't believe Zeta-Jones got an oscar. Love Renee though, but more so in other films. Queen Latifah was the only one with enough spunk to do the material any justice. Perhaps it would have been a better film some of the broadway cast.

 

[JohnRice]

I believe the word I'm looking for is....doubletalk.


All said in jest, of course.

 

[Brook K]

Shock Corridor (If I could delete Renee and just watch CZJ's scenes, than Chicago would be watchable. I had no idea Chicago was the modern day Joe Dallesandro Trilogy.)

Andrei Rublev

I'm out. I don't want to ignore posts but I can't read the stuff in this thread anymore. Thanks Lew, a fun concept, however it quit being fun about 3 pages ago.

 

[george kaplan]

Well Brook, if it's any consolation, after each of the first round matchups are posted, I won't be saying much about them, so it might be easier to take.

 

[JohnRice]

Brook, your point is taken, and Lew, I don't want to cause problems in your tourney. I don't believe in putting people on ignore, but for my part, I'll just let any further comments roll by.

FWIW, I am going through a rather stressful time and I know by the constant knot in my stomach and aching jaw that I am not handling it well.

 

[Lew Crippen]

You really should see this movie John—for the cinematography if nothing else.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Chicago goes down to Shock Corridor 3–1. The Conformist and Andrei Rublev tie, 2–2. I’ll break the tie for the Russian.

Andrei Rublev and Shock Corridor move to the second round.


Today’s matches:

Round 1: Bracket 8:

Les enfants du paradis, perhaps proof (if actually needed) that George hates foreign language films, most especially if they are in French. , as this movie was once named at the Cannes Film Festival as the greatest French movie of all time (no doubt a bit of hyperbole). But even if not quite true director Marcel Carné has given us three hours of beauty, as Garance weaves her way through love, and what is real and what is imagined (life and the theater in the movie). An absolutely brilliant movie, that can be watched over and over, each time seeing something new.

Children of Paradise made it to the main field over Mulholland Drive via my tie-breaking vote. How will it do the second time out?

vs.

Breaking the Waves, perhaps proving that if there are foreign directors George hates more than the French, it would be the Scandinavians. Yet another movie by Lars von Trier that is respected by the critics (made the S&S list), it seems at the beginning to be about sex, impotency and love—but in the end is more about spirituality than anything else. Scandinavian directors seem to have a penchant for examining man’s relationship to God—and this is another fine example in that long tradition.


Round 1: Bracket 9:

Titanic, perhaps not the best film on this list, but certainly the most profitable and most widely seen. An awesome achievement by director James Cameron from a technical, movie-making perspective and also by managing to cast Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as the protagonists who are almost too beautiful to be believed (though no more unbelievable than the plot).

vs.

A Room with a View, a love story that examines the class system of Edwardian England (as did the E.M. Forster’s novel). Forester, in many of his novels used settings outside of England, the better to consider what was happening inside the country and A Room with a View, set in Florence is a prime example. Naturally, this is tailor-made for the Ivory/Merchant team and they do (as expected) a stunning job with this period piece.

This shut out Thelma and Louise in the preliminary round, and should be well rested for this round.


Why does George hate these movies? His complaints:

“Breaking the Waves

“ Did you ever spin on one of those Kindergarten merry-go-rounds really fast and then jump off? I feel like I'm still spinning (with all the associated nausea) from watching Breaking the Waves. My one-eyed Uncle, with one leg 3 inches shorter than the other, films a less messy video than Von Trier did here. By far the worst cinematography I've ever seen. Period. Including all home movies, internet streaming video, etc. Plus a story populated with the usual assortment of people for whom a mass lobotomy would be a great service. Actually, it looks like a botched mass lobotomy must have been performed on them, cause there's not much else to explain these characters. There is something worse than one-dimensional characters, and it's these 0.707106781 dimensional ones.

“ Titanic

“ Poor Cimarron. Ever since 1931, it held the record, unchallenged for the worst film to ever win a Best Picture Oscar. Oh sure, there were close calls (The Greatest Show on Earth & Oliver just to name two), but it held the crown all those years. Until that sad night, March 23, 1998 when it had to finally give up the crown to Titanic.

“ I've seen 5 of the 7 Cameron films that preceded this (6 of 8 if you count the Universal 3-D show), and loved them all. So I was looking forward to this.

“ Now, Cameron did a good job with the effects, etc. But the thing that seems to have turned on most critics (a supposedly humanizing love story) was the thing that completely ruined this film for me. It is the most trite, pathetic, unrealistic and irritating love story ever put on film. Yecch. And the thing that turned on most of the audience (Leo :croon: ) is what really ruined it for me.

“ I saw this twice, sort of. We had an emergency not too long into the first show. So, a week or so later we went back. Both times we saw it in a packed audience, that consisted of me, my wife and hundreds of 11-15 year old girls. Every time Leo came on, crooning, sighing, crying, etc.

“ Again, going to the open mind issue, I never thought I'd see a film with him that I wouldn't hate, but I actually liked Catch Me if You Can quite a bit.

“ But as for Titanic, if you could harness my hatred of this film, it would certainly sink that damn ship a hell of a lot faster than that iceberg did.”

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Abstain

Titanic

 

[george kaplan]

Well to be fair, it needs to be pointed out that there are French directors I love, e.g., Tati and others that made at least some films I love (e.g., Clouzet and Dassin). And Bergman certainly made one of my favorite films.

 

[JohnRice]

Abstain

A Room with a View

 

[SteveGon]

Children of Paradise
Abstain

 

[Rain]

Nuts to the hyperbole.

Abstain :frowning:

 

[Bill McA]

Breaking the Waves - love this film

A Room With A View - I like Titanic too...even with it's faults

P.S. - I happen to like musicals and Joe Dallesandro movies, but Chicago was just dull, flat and lifeless. Bob Fosse would have hated it!

 

[Lew Crippen]

Ivory/Merchant’s period piece beats James Cameron’s view of the past 2–1. Les enfants du paradis once again must go to overtime, as Breaking the Waves comes from behind to knot up the score. Once again I break the tie for the French.

A Room with a View and Les enfants du paradis advance.



Today’s matches:

Round 1: Bracket 1:

Cries and Whispers, an interesting movie solely on its sets and cinematography, is filled with repressed characters who struggle to get their passions and feelings out of their inner selves. Not many would consider this Bergman’s best, but it is still very fine indeed.


vs.

Blue Velvet another movie where sex takes center stage—though this bondage is not psychological, but physical. At least no one would call Frank Booth repressed.

Blue Velvet beat Gone with the Wind (a surprise to me) in the preliminary round.


Round 1: Bracket 16:

The Red Shoes, the ballet movie that brings to life the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name. Impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) is the real embodiment of the fairy tale’s sinister offering of the dancing shoes to Victoria Page (Moira Shearer).

The Powell & Pressburger movie beat John Wayne’s [She Wore a Yellow Ribbon[/i] to advance.

vs.

Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee’s magnum opus and a movie that sparked conservation throughout white, middle-class living rooms throughout the nation. This all takes place in one hot, summer day.


Why does George hate these movies? His complaints:

“Cries & Whispers

“ I've seen so many truly wretched films in the past couple of years, thanks in no small part to S&S, that I can't say for certainty what my most hated film is. Buffalo '66? Flesh for Frankenstein? Breaking the Waves? Performance? The Piano? The Mirror? I don't know. But I do know that for the longest time, the clear winner was (and may still be) Cries & Whispers. I saw this before The Seventh Seal, and I'll still never understand how the genius who could make The Seventh Seal could later make such a putrid film as this. I can't do it justice, but it is the epitome of a film with psychotic fucked-up bitches doing incomprehensibly stupid things for no good reason. I wanted to pull that broken glass out of that cunt's cunt and use it to cut my eyes out. Truly a film worthy of hatred.

“ Do the Right Thing

“ Most of you already know why I absolutely loathe this film. This is a film more virulently racist than even dung like Birth of a Nation or The Eternal Jew.

“ This film has two simple underlying hypotheses. One, everybody is, deep down, a racist. Two, the 'right thing' to do about racism is to engage in racist violence.

“ I blatantly reject both propositions, and, while I know many disagree, it is 100% clear to me that these are the two central themes being promoted by this film.

“ Disgusting racist propaganda that almost would lead me to temporarily revoke my belief in the first amendment long enough to completely destroy all prints, but not quite.”

 

[Walter Kittel]

abstain - No Cries and Whispers but I absolutely love Blue Velvet and consider it one of the best films of the 80s.

Do the Right Thing - Could not disagree more with George's interpretation of this film.

- Walter.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Do the Right Thing.

I don't like either of the other films enough to vote for either of them.