And a belated +1 for Babette's Feast!
If you like Danish 19th century social realism, Pelle the Conqueror is one of my all-time favourite films.
Spurred by the hawt and heavy Homosexuality in Golarion thread, I rewatched a documentary that I think not only was made in Hollywood but is all about Hollywood (with some Britishiznoid flicks thrown in for comparison):
Three or so interviews with Gore Vidal?!? Hip-hip-hooray!!!!
Sub titles do NOT Make it a foreign film when its the same two words over and over!
Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai
and accompanying filmsnob article.
Jean-Luc Godard's One Plus One
which is a hell of a lot weirder than I had been anticipating.
Also, a couple of filmsnobby articles about Jacques Demy's Umbrellas
Folks familiar with Scandinavian cinema, have any of you seen Kekkonen tulle/Village People? It's coming to a film fest here, and looks intriguing, but the trailer is only in Finnish, so I'm having a hard time selling my partner on it.
Unrelated recommendation: Fanie Fourie's Lobola: comedy about a Boer man and Zulu woman who fall in love, despite the opposition of their families; the bride's father insists the groom must first pay a lobola (bride price) of 65 cows—more than for Winnie Mandela! Funny, honest, and doesn't try to pretend that everything will be easy and happy ever after.
While we are back in the north of Europe: Pathfinder is a superb Norwegian movie about a young Sami trying to prevent a brigand raid on an unsuspecting village. It's been adapted for US audiences with Karl Urban in the lead role a few years back by one Marcus Nispel (he of Conan infamy). As you may suspect, it's a gorram disaster.
There is also Dead Snow, an absurd Norwegian horror flick featuring Nazi zombies. Dead Snow 2 will come out this year.
Wait, was the Karl Urban one an adaptation? I loved the Norwegian one when I saw it years (well, decades) ago, but judging by the trailers assumed that the Karl Urban thing was just a sweaty viking yell-fest that happened to have the same name.
Wait, was the Karl Urban one an adaptation? I loved the Norwegian one when I saw it years (well, decades) ago, but judging by the trailers assumed that the Karl Urban thing was just a sweaty viking yell-fest that happened to have the same name.
I wrote that. The link goes to the original's IMDB entry. Unfortunately, I can't edit my post anymore.
Unrelated recommendation: Fanie Fourie's Lobola: comedy about a Boer man and Zulu woman who fall in love, despite the opposition of their families; the bride's father insists the groom must first pay a lobola (bride price) of 65 cows—more than for Winnie Mandela! Funny, honest, and doesn't try to pretend that everything will be easy and happy ever after.
Tried to add this one to my Netflix queue, but, alas, they don't have it. Hopefully, it's just too new.
Yeah, they were working on a distribution deal last summer, not sure if it came through. *knocks on wood* And maybe watch your public library holdings too!
Koerner, Ray & Glover: Blues, Rags and Hollers
An obscure documentary about a trio of obscure Minneapolis folkies. Much of the footage is from the early 80s when the hippie dream had unraveled a tad.
I was going to go see Catching Fire today, but it's snowing. We'll see...
Vive le Katniss!!
[Shakes clenched fist]
I know it's popular enough, but I recently got to see District 9, and oh my gosh is that film awesome and sci-fi done right.
Another film I really enjoy is Tenchi Musashi (aka The Samurai Astronomer). It's a gripping tale of Japanese calendar reform.
That Samurai Astronomer one sounds pretty awesome, actually. Any of you cumb-bums ever seen Proof?
HD haven't seen proof - Hopkins usually = a good movie but Paltrow is a minus.
They had one of my favourites on the TV the other night Shaoliin Soccer.
Has anybody seen the Mr Vampire Franchise it's very funny Kung fu vs Vampire action horror comedy.
Most of the movies are free on YouTube.
The Ruling Class
Well, this movie was all kindsa f%!~ed up. Maybe even more so than that Godard Rolling Stones picture, but maybe not.
Here's O'Toole freaking out.
Also, Vive le Katniss!
Smash Panem Through Workers Revolution!
That Samurai Astronomer one sounds pretty awesome, actually. Any of you cumb-bums ever seen Proof?
I haven't seen Proof, but I greatly enjoyed Pi.
Here's a link for The Samurai Astronomer. And yes, it's got battles, intrigue, history, rebellion, and math.
Finally finished Quilomobo which was WIKKID OSSUM even if the synch with the subtitles gets really delayed after the hour mark or so.
Took my mother out to see The Hobbit and then I started watching the first season of True Blood which is WIKKID HAWT!!!
I haven't seen Proof, but I greatly enjoyed Pi.
I haven't seen Pi in years, but I did see the trailer for the new Aronofsky flick at the cineplex yesterday. (Man, I'm so glad I've been reading The Bible recently!)
Also, found the entirety of The Ruling Class on youtube, if anyone's interested.
I went and saw The Book Thief with a friend last night, and absolutely loved it. Hadn't read the book, so I had no idea what it was about, but I thought it was very well made, and cast brilliantly. Geoffrey Rush as Hans in particular was wonderful.
So, there's a Noah coming out and, later, it looks like Ridley Scott is dressing up Christian Bale as Moses.
Then there was another thread about The Ten Commandments prominently displayed in American courthouses and the awesome cineaste connection there.
And then there's the fact that I'm in the middle of the Book of Psalms which isn't very exciting going and next is the Book of Proverbs which looks even worse.
So, I've decided to enliven my Bible reading by watching Old Testament flicks.
If anyone has any particular favorites, I'm all ears.
So I've been meaning to recommend this one for a while. I reckon Comrade Doodlebug will really enjoy it for the absurd and somewhat surreal comedy, though it is a very Australian film. It's one of my absolute favourite films, up there with The Crow and Filth
He Died With A Felafel In His Hand
The film follows the life of Danny as he drifts from share house to share house around Australia, living with a huge variety of housemates, all of whom are insane in their own ways.
You can see the first ten minutes of it HERE. Should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect, though fair warning, there's significant amounts of swearing and other offensive language. As openings of movies go, it's a pretty damn good one. Features Golden Brown by The Stranglers (one of my favourite songs, mostly because of this film); that most Australian of sports, Cane Toad Golf; an in depth discussion about whether Mr Orange and Mr White from Reservoir Dogs are in fact truly in love with each other; a story about the hilarious consequences of becoming too fond of your hand as a lover; and an encounter with an angry and bitter social services officer.
The book is so much better, but the movie is still good. I totally recommend the book, it's based on real experiences.
My first share house came about because one of my friends had a Felafel situation in his share house and he wanted to move out and needed housemates. It was very sad but morbidly amusing at the same time.
"I had to cut back on the smoke after fading out during an early morning Chinese class and snapping back into a room where everybody was speaking Cantonese. I had a major panic attack, thought I'd smoked so much I'd lost the power to comprehend speech."
From He Died with a Felafel in His Hand by John Birmingham
The Author now writes some good sci-fi, Without Warning being one of his best books.
I know he did a sequel to He Died With A Felafel In His Hand, can't remember what it's called though. It was written as a novel rather than in the diary-esque style of the first book though, I remember that. Didn't realise he was doing sci-fi now.
The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco... Not as good as Falafel but still very funny.
I also recommend his history of the seedy side of Sydney it's called Leviathan... Sydney was corrupt and rotten right from first settlement.
"Terrifying tsunamis, corpse-robbing morgue staff, killer cops, neo-Nazis, and power junkies electrify this epic tale of a city with a cold vacuum for a moral coreviolent, ghoulish and utterly compelling, Leviathan is history for the Tarantino generation."
He writes the occasional bit for the SMH but I am unsure of his politics I can't pin him down. He is very pro US but very anti conservative....
Ok Aussie movies Filmed around where I lived.
Garage Days is ok - its not one of Alex Proyas's (Dark City the Crow) best movies, Its filmed in the Suburb where I spent my late 20's and early 30's. Friends of mine are in the crowd scenes.
Erskineville Kings, great movie.
Bootmen if you dont expect too much its ok.
Huh. Never realised that Garage Days was Proyas. Will have to check it out.
Definitely check out Akira Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala. Not a samurai film at all - it details the meeting of a native Goldi's meeting with Russian surveyors in the early 20thC (I think - it's been a while) and the clash of cultural assumptions and siunderstandings... Very beautifully shot, incredibly slow, heartfelt and crushingly endearing.
I second the Weeping Camel movie. Made me cry. But then I cry in almost every movie in which the cinematography, score, dialogue, plot elements and body language/facial expressions (so, yeah, almost every movie) have been designed and situated just so, conspiring to tap into my ur-self and elegaically lift me from my usual inured-to-anomie existence and gut me with sentiment. Damn you cruel films, damn you!!!
I am hoping to make it to a viewing of The Square over the next week and I noticed that Boston's other shrine to filmsnobbery, the Harvard Film Archive is having an Andrei Tarkovsky and John Huston retrospectives which I am going to try and follow along with at home.
I'm going to have to rely on Netflix quite a bit, but, happily I do already have Solaris.
When Doodlebug was in pharaoh's land/Let my people gooooooo
The Ten Commandments (in 70 mm Vistavision!)
Man, that Bette Davis, huh? What a biznitch!
(Belated thanks to Zeugma.)
(Man, the youtube link is such better quality than the cheapo cheapo public domain DVD I just watched. I wuz robbed!)
From Ingerland - The Damned United. About Brian Clough's disastrous time in charge of Leeds. Excellent performances from Michael Sheen as Clough, Timothy Spall (Wormtail in Harry Potter) as his assistant Peter Taylor, Colm Meaney as Don Revie, and the guy who plays Al Pacino in Boardwalk Empire as Billy Bremner.
(Jim Broadbent's doing good work in it as well.)
I never made it to The Square, alas, but I did rewatch Solaris and highly recommend it to either filmsnobs or fans of communist sci-fi.
Also, re-watched Stagecoach.
It is, of course, awesome.
I saw the Spanish movie Torrente 3: El protector, it was so bad it was good. Cop comedy with lots of tropes turned upside down, and the hero was totally repulsive.
Vendor - Fantasiapelit Tampere
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Star Wreck- In the Pirkinning is a finnish comedy/mock-up of scifi television series Star Trek and many more. Great fun, one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
Also, Iron Sky from the same director, movie about space nazis coming from the dark side of the moon. Funny as hell!
If anybody likes art and the 1900's then the movie Sirens about the Australian artist Norman Lindsay is very good.
Hipster website on Full Metal Jacket
Marxist website on Hannah Arendt
Which mostly makes me scratch my head in amazement that I've never seen Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg for those who don't know who she was and don't speak German
A quick warning about Norman Lindsays art work... A lot of it s NSFW....
"His frank and sumptuous nudes were highly controversial. In 1940, Soady took sixteen crates of paintings, drawings and etchings to the U.S. to protect them from the war. Unfortunately, they were discovered when the train they were on caught fire and were impounded and subsequently burned as pornography by American officials." (Wiki).
Hawt.
About to watch D.A. Pennebaker's legendary Eat the Document which is available on youtube until Bobby D's lawyers find out.
Cinema and the Class Struggle
Finally saw Elysium
First off, [Snuggles with the Matt Damon Puppet]
Second off, I was out of the room during the opening credits and I spent the whole movie thinking Jodie Foster was Tilda Swinton. I don't know why.
Third off, I noticed roughly a half dozen plot holes. However, if you think that stopped me from liking a sci-fi allegory about class war and the plight of the undocumented, well, I guess you don't know me.
Fourth off, Down with Obamacare! For free, quality health care for all!
Cinema and the Class Struggle
Well, not really the class struggle at all, but...
This is one of the sickest, blackest comedies I've ever seen. It being Britishiznoid, or rather, Pakistani-Britishiznoid, there's a lot that flew over my head...but OMG!!! this movie is bad ass.
It's on my list to see.
Cinema and the Class Struggle
Three films I started but haven't finished
Well, thus far, I couldn't help but notice that everyone has a home and food to eat.
We already have the Stasi, might as well get the jobs and health care, too! For workers revolution!
and an Irish Civil War two-fer (kinda)
The Wind That Shakes the Barley and
Duck, You Sucker!
with Rod Steiger in brownface.
This is one of the sickest, blackest comedies I've ever seen. It being Britishiznoid, or rather, Pakistani-Britishiznoid, there's a lot that flew over my head...but OMG!!! this movie is bad ass.
Such a good film—and so sad. Have you seen The Infidel, Comrade? It's in the same vein, but more lighthearted.
Also! For anyone in the Seattle area, the Nordic Heritage Center is showing the wonderful film Kitchen Stories in March—with complementary homemade soup, bread, coffee, and church-basement-style desserts!
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Cinema and the Class Struggle
Well, not really the class struggle at all, but...
This is one of the sickest, blackest comedies I've ever seen. It being Britishiznoid, or rather, Pakistani-Britishiznoid, there's a lot that flew over my head...but OMG!!! this movie is bad ass.
I switched on this movie while on the tubes one night, saw most of it and I was hooked.
Yes - I thought it was dark but it was funny as hell. I don't think it was sad at all and I don't think that was the intention of the creators of the film. It was a flipping a bird at the Western perception of Islam and Islamic terrorism while simultaneously taking swipes at terrorism and the stupidity of terrorism. It's very rare to get a movie that succeeds at doing both. Very punk rock without any punk rockers, unless you count the terrorist hero/anti-heroes/I-don't-know-what-to-call-them as the punks.
Pinko-Goblin, thanks for reminding me about this film. I actually need to pick up the DVD right now....heading over to Amazon.
This is one of the sickest, blackest comedies I've ever seen. It being Britishiznoid, or rather, Pakistani-Britishiznoid, there's a lot that flew over my head...but OMG!!! this movie is bad ass.
Such a good film—and so sad. Have you seen The Infidel, Comrade? It's in the same vein, but more lighthearted.
Also! For anyone in the Seattle area, the Nordic Heritage Center is showing the wonderful film Kitchen Stories in March—with complementary homemade soup, bread, coffee, and church-basement-style desserts!
Do go and see this, it's pretty darn funny.
Such a good film—and so sad. Have you seen The Infidel, Comrade? It's in the same vein, but more lighthearted.
Also! For anyone in the Seattle area, the Nordic Heritage Center is showing the wonderful film Kitchen Stories in March—with complementary homemade soup, bread, coffee, and church-basement-style desserts!
No, I haven't, thank you.
Fellow fans of Four Lions may be pleased to hear that I showed to three friends, they all loved it, I posted the trailer on my Facebook feed and it made the former Eldritch Mr. Shiny laugh until he threw up! Or so he said. I wasn't there.