I go first, so I get the easy one.
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Peter O'Toole was ace.
Time Crimes (cronocriminems) is a great Spanish sci-fi flick.
Wong Kar Wai makes great films like In The Mood For Love and the trippy sequel, 2046
City of Lost Chidren is a lovely piece of French hokum.
Yojimbo is an excellent Akira Kurosawa film and has aged very well, better than Rashomon. Although Rashomon is still very good stuff.
I also really like Pedro Amoldovar, especially his more serious stuff like All About My Mother and Talk To Her. Both are pretty heartbreaking.
Another heartbreaker is In The Bedroom.
I don't know if Hollywood made it but The Station Agent feels pretty indy.
Oh, and Couscous is good too.
I'll think of more, but that's a start on some cool fillums.
City of Lost Chidren is a lovely piece of French hokum.
yes! I had forgotten about that one (but I thought it was Belgium?)
[edit] apparently not: it is French
I've yet to see an Almodovar film that didn't kick ass.
In the Mood for Love was pretty killer, too.
As with the 2004 remake with Queen Latifa, the original Taxi movies (written by Luc Besson) received so-so reviews but I really enjoyed them (well 1 is excellent, 2 is really good, 3 is pushing it a bit far and there's a Taxi 4 which I haven't seen...)
Taxi 1 is a must see for late 20th-century french movies IMO.
As with the 2004 remake with Queen Latifa, the original Taxi movies (written by Luc Besson) received so-so reviews but I really enjoyed them (well 1 is excellent, 2 is really good, 3 is pushing it a bit far and there's a Taxi 4 which I haven't seen...)
Taxi 1 is a must see for late 20th-century french movies IMO.
The third one is where we get a gratuitous Sylvester Stallone cameo, isn't it?
As with the 2004 remake with Queen Latifa, the original Taxi movies (written by Luc Besson) received so-so reviews but I really enjoyed them (well 1 is excellent, 2 is really good, 3 is pushing it a bit far and there's a Taxi 4 which I haven't seen...)
Taxi 1 is a must see for late 20th-century french movies IMO.
I, OTOH, think they're pure, unadulterated crap. Then again, French comedy seems to be always going for the childish and silly (I detest Louis de Funes), which I don't find funny.
Aki Kaurismäki has done some great stuff. I'd particularly recommend one he didn't direct, but wrote: The Man With No Past.
Article on O'Toole featuring three flicks I haven't seen:
I have a special dislike for Lawrence of Arabia - Major Historical inaccuracies and Lawrence himself was a liar and gloryhound.
But, but, but, Anthony Quinn wears an outrageous fake nose!
And Omar Sharif!
And little catamite Arab boys!
"'Orrance, 'Orrance!"
And one that I somehow missed...Billy Jack, RIP.
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I'm not sure why Hollywood films were specifically left out. Hollywood is pretty foreign!
Anyway. If you can keep a secret, Strictly Ballroom is a guilty pleasure of mine. :(
Also, Bad Santa is one of my favourite holiday movies of all time (after Die Hard, obviously.)
Finally, Captain Alatriste deserves honourable mention if only because it has Viggo Mortensen speaking spanish. Which amuses me. This movie also has the dubious honour of being the only movie I've ever fallen asleep while watching.
Bad Santa is one of my favorite movies of all time, holiday or not.
Damn, I get busy with work for a while, come back and find all these films I need to check out. If I had much of a social life, I'd put it on hold for a while :P
Strictly Ballroom huh. Yeah, I actually quite enjoy that movie. Baz Lurhman's. His version of Romeo and Juliet, I thought that was brilliant, but I hated Moulin Rouge. Still haven't seen The Great Gatsby, though I've heard good things about it.
Also, totally agree Comrade Anklebiter! Bad Santa is just amazing. Saw that at the movies with my uncle when I was 15, have loved it ever since.
Sadly no new suggestions here yet. Let me raid my collection once I'm done with today's mountain of work and I'll see what I can find.
ZOMG, Best of Youth, all the way! Look it's super long, but it was a TV miniseries in Italy, and over here they released it as a movie, so it's six hours long. Take my advice and rent-to-own the DVD so you can watch it at your own pace. Totally worth it. (Red Brigade membership is a plot point, Doodles.)
School of Italian Marxism that my co-workers most resemble: Autonomism.
"Autonomist Marxism is thus a 'bottom-up' theory: it draws attention to activities that autonomists see as everyday working-class resistance to capitalism, for example absenteeism, slow working, and socialization in the workplace."
You haven't gotten your package for Xmas yet?
Piss off, Stooge!
Vive le Galt!
Also, today I watched The Last Unicorn which I think won the Palme D'or at Cannes, but maybe not...
i just can't believe Autonomism didn't have anything to with the failure of Fiat; Fiat was an auto company, right?
As for the The Last Unicorn, by the time I saw the TV special I'd already gotten into trad celtic music, so I was all, "That soundtrack is overmixed! Fie on thee!!"
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[Reads label on Paizo package to Rhode Island]
"Dicey the House Goblin c/o The Dice Manse"
[Throws it in the trash]
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Okay, let's see what I found in my collection of movies.
Gettin Square: Best way to describe this one is as the closest thing Australia has to Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Though I suppose an argument could also be made for Two Hands to take that role).
Sliding Doors: One of my favourite romantic comedy-drama films, mostly due to John Hannah's performance.
Repo! The Genetic Opera: While The Rocky Horror Picture Show will always be my favourite musical, this one comes in a close second. the performances of Anthony Stewart Head as the organ repossessing Repo Man and Sarah Brightman as Blind Mag were brilliant.
DoomsdaySurprisingly entertaining British-American sci-fi action film. Starts off with your stock standard "There's been a plague and we walled ourselves off from all the victims in this city" plot, and takes the predictable "We need to send a team out to find a cure" track... then starts throwing in Mad Max style car chases with gothic/punk cannibals, a throw-back to medieval life complete with knights in armour and single combat, then more chases. What's not to love?
Wild Target: Bill Nighy as fussy hitman, Emily Blunt as a con-woman way out of her depth, Rupert Everett as an art aficionado gangster, and Martin Freeman as a sadistic hitman. Some of my favourite actors pop up in this comedy... although it didn't review well, I loved it. Also, seeing Ron Weasley (Yes, I know his name is Rupert Grint, but I always think of him as Ron Weasley) smoking pot made me chuckle.
Tinkergoth, I just love you for even mentioning Sliding Doors. Have you ever seen Breaking Away? You will love that junk!
Haven't heard of Breaking Away before, but having just watched the trailer I think I'll have to track it down.
i just can't believe Autonomism didn't have anything to with the failure of Fiat; Fiat was an auto company, right?
Fiat is an auto company, and going, if not strong, so at least going. (At least I assume they wouldn't have bought 58,5% of Chrysler last year if they were in dire straits.)
The company's owners, the Agnelli family are also famous as the long-time owners of Juventus FC, Italy's most successful football club.
Two flicks that I've been thinking about while bopping around the boards:
and another installment of
Cinema and the Class Struggle
Haven't seen many of them myself. Just Django (which I liked) and Burn! which I should watch again. Quilombo and Sansho the Bailiff sound pretty intriguing. I stayed far, far away from Beloved although I quite liked the book.
Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer) is making Journey to the West.
As long as is it as good as the Japanese TV show Monkey from the 1970's then I will be happy.
In the worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heaven sought order. But the phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essences of Heaven and the moisture of Earth, the powers of the sun and the moon all worked upon a certain rock, old as creation. And it became magically fertile. The first egg was named "Thought". Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, "With our thoughts, we make the world." Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it then came a stone monkey. The nature of monkey was irrepressible!
As long as is it as good as the Japanese TV show Monkey from the 1970's then I will be happy.
That intro is epic in every sense of the word!!!
That intro is epic in every sense of the word!!!
As long as is it as good as the Japanese TV show Monkey from the 1970's then I will be happy.
If you can find it on DVD its well worth it. Its Japanese name Saiyūki, Its based on the Journey to the West a Chinese Classic. The BBC dubbed it and we got it in Australia along with Doctor Who and the Goodies.
Nothing much to report, comrades, except that I dug through my boxes, found Good Bye, Lenin!, watched it again and balled my little goblin eyes out. [Sniffle]
I did catch some of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance on teevee, though, and, the same day, Louis Proyect posted an excerpt from a book about John Ford and The Searchers. Synergistic weirdiosity? Or was Comrade Proyect watching the same cable network on Xmas?
Musical Interlude (Cover)
In between stretches of picket line duty in the OTD, I watched the original Cape Fear which I'm pretty sure one of my high school teachers showed us parts of senior year (he wanted to be a film studies professor, but had to settle for teaching English), but I don't think I'd ever seen the whole thing before. Or else I've forgotten.
Anyway, Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam, Telly Savalas when he still had hair, one creepy-ass mo'foing Robert Mitchum and lots of lingering shots on some 14-year-old girl in short shorts. Kinda like an episode of Criminal Minds circa 1960.
Good shiznit.
Cinema and the Class Struggle
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An Australian comedy with Stalin, Children of the Revolution.
Comrade Judy is so hawt in that film...
Finally started the third season of Downton Abbey but took a little break to re-watch Half Baked.
I am hoping to go down to Boston on during Xmas week for a screening of my faves French musical, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg even though I'm pretty certain I still have it on dvd.
Catherine Deneuve: OHWFA!
Didn't make the trek to Boston because I found my DVD, watched it last night and cried and cried and cried...
Even the opening credits made me cry, but maybe that's because I already knew what was going to happen.
I do like good Anime Castle of Cagliostro is one... Most of the new stuff is crap.
I do like good Anime Castle of Cagliostro is one... Most of the new stuff is crap.
I'm a pretty big anime fan. I do have to admit that I'm a sucker for pretty art, and am willing to forgive crappy storylines for it (to an extent)... I also have a strange love of the so-called Harem Anime genre (Love Hina, Ah My Goddess, all that stuff). That said, I think there's still some pretty awesome animated series and films coming out.
I saw three of the four features at the Reel Anime festival this year. A Letter to Momo was a brilliant kids movie in a similar style to My Neighbour Totoro (though the humour was far cruder); The Garden of Words and Ghost in the Shell: Arise short film double feature was also interesting. Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo was also pretty enjoyable, though sadly it abandoned the whole "This is going to make more sense than the series did" thing that the first two films had going on and just went for mind screw again.
Other good ones I've seen recently are From Up On Poppy Hill; Arrietty (based on the childrens novel The Borrowers, which also had a fantastic 2011 adaptation with Christopher Eccleston and Stephen Fry in it); and Ponyo. Actually hell, most Ghibli films are pretty amazing. Personal favourites are Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Cat Returns (couldn't find a proper trailer for this one) and of course, Spirited Away.
That said, my all time favourite anime films are Ghost in the Shell;Akira and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
More Catherine Deneuve and umbrellas (as well as some Kandinsky, women's lib, and workers' rights) - Potiche.
When Deneuve's husband suffers a heart attack during a strike at the umbrella factory she owns and he runs she has to step up and take the rein. With the aid of the town's communist mayor (Gerard Depardieu) she turns out to be remarkably good at the job.
Well, I'm glad to see Mlle. Deneuve never got typecast.
In other news, Downton Abbey, Season Three got me searching the web:
Branson burned down the manor home of our Lord Dunsany!!!
Take that, Elfland!
Vive le Galt!
Actually, I've come to the conclusion that Branson is a Stooge of the Plutocracy, and I am desperately awaiting someone to set Downton on fire.
Vive le Galt!
Continuing my mini French Film Festival (following a trip to the big city where they have a proper DVD shop) - La Reine Margot, based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas (Père).
Isabelle Adjani - oh la la!
Daniel Auteuil as the future Henri IV, Jean-Hugues Anglade as Charles IX, and Virna Lisi as Cathérine de Medici (so that's what an Italian accent sounds like in French) puts in great performances as well.
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Well, I'm glad to see Mlle. Deneuve never got typecast.
In other news, Downton Abbey, Season Three got me searching the web:
Branson burned down the manor home of our Lord Dunsany!!!
Take that, Elfland!
Vive le Galt!
Actually, I've come to the conclusion that Branson is a Stooge of the Plutocracy, and I am desperately awaiting someone to set Downton on fire.
Vive le Galt!
Oh, pish, it's been obvious from season one that Branson was a limousine liberal, he just happened to be driving the thing.
Also:
"Hey, yo, Lord Grantham, don't let the staff read books from your library! It gives them ideas!" I swear, to hear *ahem* the Lineal Sovereign Lady Dice (look, whatever) talk about it, and to watch Downton Abbey you'd think that the Lady Dowager and I are the only ones who even understand why society should be stratified to begin with. Well, Carson's alright; y'know, for a servant.
[Spits]
I spit on Branson, but I'm not sure he ever drove a limousine.
Maybe I should watch that Cillian Murphy flick KJ recommended...
[Spits]
I spit on Branson, but I'm not sure he ever drove a limousine.
Maybe I should watch that Cillian Murphy flick KJ recommended...
** spoiler omitted **
Don't bother. It's not very good.
Pulled it out of the boxes, but haven't watched it yet.
Instead, I watched House of Flying Daggers which I thought was silly but pretty, Bucking Broadway a silent John Ford western that wasn't really worth watching, and the first half of Quilombo which was, indeed, awesome. I hope the second part is equally rad.
Was over a comrade with ADHD's house and tried to show Quilombo but after 40 or so minutes, he couldn't control his channel-surfing and we ended up watching bits of The Sinful Nuns of St. Valentine, Prison Girls (which I am mortified I can't find a trailer for) and, for some more Peter O'Toole, Caligula. (I wouldn't recommend watching any of these links at work.)
Then, this being a vacation week for me, I stayed up late and watched the Season Premiere of Downton Abbey with my mother. Neither of us can stand Lord Grantham.
Burn it down, Tom, burn it down!
Give it up, Doodles. You saw it last night, he thinks he's on a first-name basis with the Dowager. That dude drank the kool-aid!
Burn it down, Tom Barrow, burn it down!
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Watched a number of films while visiting my Aged Ps, mostly selected based on keywords "international" and "difficult childhood." My favorites were Life, Above All, the story of a 12-year-old girl fighting the culture of secrecy and shame surrounding AIDS in South Africa (pretty devastating), and Story of the Weeping Camel, a film where the people all actually make good decisions and treat each other well (absurdly satisfying to me)—the tension comes instead from animal misbehavior and culture clash.
And a belated +1 for Babette's Feast!