Cinemascope
for my own referenceWednesday, July 04, 2012
film list - 4 july 2012
t men –
anthony mann – average noir drama about two undercover agents going undercover
in the mob.
it's a wonderful life – frank capra – true blue feel good. jimmy stewart is all american goodness and an angel walks the earth.
the girl who leapt through time – japanese anime classic about a girl who leaps back a day to make a love affair happen- and fails many times. lovingly drawn. science fiction meets coming of age
robot carnival – a series of anime directors playing with robots. the fun ones are the ones with humor. the tedious ones that try make profound the man/machine divide.
the other guys – when the hero cops die after jumping off a building the other guys take their place. loser buddy cop comedy. almost funny.
macbeth – orson welles over the top melodrama set in a craggy landscape. the norse goth chiaroscuro is all very dramatic.
it happened one night – dil hain ki manta nahin with more sweetness and beauty.
shame – new york city and a strange sexuality / morality drama. sex obsessed man in crystal clear skyscrapers and his sister a crumbling wreck
yojimbo – akira kurosawa. epic drama where a traveling samurai plays one clan against another in a a small village torn into two.
faster . dwayne johnson is released from prison and goes an a revenge rampage.
the all round reduced personality .helke sander. terrific film about a berlin. a single mother photographer and another group of women photograph the streets of berlin. long track shots of berlin.
ghost world. sad bitter enough telling of the graphic novel where two girlfriends in small town america spend time being cynical outsiders while vying for acceptance.
le chinoise- godard’s experimental staccato parody(?) on chinese communism and its glamour among the french youth of the 60s. difficult.
of gods and men – true story set in algeria that is based in a christian monastery surorunded by gradually increasing violence. the monks try and withstand but are kidnapped and murdered.
bridesmaids – too nasty to be completely funny. a crisis emerges when one of two girlfriends decides to leave spinsterhood and get married. jealousy rears its ugly head.
money ball – sports film in which brad pitt along with a number cruncher saves a baseball team.
tintin. the animation is lovingly recreated comic book. much nicer than i’d like to admit from steven spielberg. cant complain. and i love snowy though haddock could be better.
father son and holy war – anand patwardhan’s rant making wild and entertaining connections across gender and violence. shrill but that’s the point.
war and peace – another patwardhan classic agit-prop- long anti bomb story. why cant we live happily with one another?
diary of a country priest – bresson and a hero who is an ailing young priest in a small village. not quite ‘a man escaped’
news from ideological antiquity . eisenstein marx das capital – alexander kluge making a film about eisenstein’s aborted film on das capital via james joyce’s ulysses. verbose pontificating galore- except for that fabulous short by tom twyker that catalogues al the material on a street in berlin. cameraman
all that jazz . bob fosse. semi autobiographical musical classic with many over the top and more than slightly annoying songs scattered through. the man dies at the end- i think. ‘the wall’ with broadway songs.
agora – rachel weisz plays greek mathematician woman who is killed for not toeing the line of the new catholic powers in alexandria.
melancholia – lars von trier’s diptych of women suffering. the wedding party of the dangerously on the edge kirsten dunst in a mansion on the edge of the world. and in the second part apocalypse is coming as a blue planet collides with the earth. metaphors and meanings overflow. but the premise still seems very silly. i laughed at all the profundity.
the birth of a nation – d w griffith’s silent extraordinarily racist film about the birth of the kkk. i cant believe it’s political incorrectness.
line of beauty and grace. jock surges takes photographs of beautiful people – mainly naked women in beautiful places. i find them boring. as did i this fanmail.
exit through the gift shop. banksy. twisted doc on the boom of street art which documents the creation of another scam “street artist” thierry guetta. fun.
shanghai. dibakar banerjee’s first mis-step is still very good. more than slightly moralistic the film still manages to make some indelible images of bureaucracy and small town india. the language is where he falters and also in the evocation of place. the decision to make the town a generic indian city- i didn’t think helped.
rowdy rathore – rocking good time. prabhudeva cracks it again this time- in spite of being saddled with akshay kumar.
the saroj khan story – saroj khan is a diva. the story arc is pretty much predictable like a hindi film- but seeing her in the background at aaiye meherbaan is a real trip. and it has madhuri dixit too. so there.
27 down – i am supposed to like this film- but i could not get over the predictable story telling- though some bombay train images were fabulous in black and white.
supermen of malegaon – it is good that the film in the film is a comedy. we laugh then at the places where we are supposed to laugh and not at the people making the film. warm loving film.
a nous la libertie – rene clair doing a chaplin and a tati. two scoundrels let loose on a phonograph company wreak havoc- but also make the factory the incredible machine making for much leisure.
gangs of wasseypur – pissed me off so bad with its idea of bullying as humor. and badly made too. and manoj vajpai hams his ass off.
it's a wonderful life – frank capra – true blue feel good. jimmy stewart is all american goodness and an angel walks the earth.
the girl who leapt through time – japanese anime classic about a girl who leaps back a day to make a love affair happen- and fails many times. lovingly drawn. science fiction meets coming of age
robot carnival – a series of anime directors playing with robots. the fun ones are the ones with humor. the tedious ones that try make profound the man/machine divide.
the other guys – when the hero cops die after jumping off a building the other guys take their place. loser buddy cop comedy. almost funny.
macbeth – orson welles over the top melodrama set in a craggy landscape. the norse goth chiaroscuro is all very dramatic.
it happened one night – dil hain ki manta nahin with more sweetness and beauty.
shame – new york city and a strange sexuality / morality drama. sex obsessed man in crystal clear skyscrapers and his sister a crumbling wreck
yojimbo – akira kurosawa. epic drama where a traveling samurai plays one clan against another in a a small village torn into two.
faster . dwayne johnson is released from prison and goes an a revenge rampage.
the all round reduced personality .helke sander. terrific film about a berlin. a single mother photographer and another group of women photograph the streets of berlin. long track shots of berlin.
ghost world. sad bitter enough telling of the graphic novel where two girlfriends in small town america spend time being cynical outsiders while vying for acceptance.
le chinoise- godard’s experimental staccato parody(?) on chinese communism and its glamour among the french youth of the 60s. difficult.
of gods and men – true story set in algeria that is based in a christian monastery surorunded by gradually increasing violence. the monks try and withstand but are kidnapped and murdered.
bridesmaids – too nasty to be completely funny. a crisis emerges when one of two girlfriends decides to leave spinsterhood and get married. jealousy rears its ugly head.
money ball – sports film in which brad pitt along with a number cruncher saves a baseball team.
tintin. the animation is lovingly recreated comic book. much nicer than i’d like to admit from steven spielberg. cant complain. and i love snowy though haddock could be better.
father son and holy war – anand patwardhan’s rant making wild and entertaining connections across gender and violence. shrill but that’s the point.
war and peace – another patwardhan classic agit-prop- long anti bomb story. why cant we live happily with one another?
diary of a country priest – bresson and a hero who is an ailing young priest in a small village. not quite ‘a man escaped’
news from ideological antiquity . eisenstein marx das capital – alexander kluge making a film about eisenstein’s aborted film on das capital via james joyce’s ulysses. verbose pontificating galore- except for that fabulous short by tom twyker that catalogues al the material on a street in berlin. cameraman
all that jazz . bob fosse. semi autobiographical musical classic with many over the top and more than slightly annoying songs scattered through. the man dies at the end- i think. ‘the wall’ with broadway songs.
agora – rachel weisz plays greek mathematician woman who is killed for not toeing the line of the new catholic powers in alexandria.
melancholia – lars von trier’s diptych of women suffering. the wedding party of the dangerously on the edge kirsten dunst in a mansion on the edge of the world. and in the second part apocalypse is coming as a blue planet collides with the earth. metaphors and meanings overflow. but the premise still seems very silly. i laughed at all the profundity.
the birth of a nation – d w griffith’s silent extraordinarily racist film about the birth of the kkk. i cant believe it’s political incorrectness.
line of beauty and grace. jock surges takes photographs of beautiful people – mainly naked women in beautiful places. i find them boring. as did i this fanmail.
exit through the gift shop. banksy. twisted doc on the boom of street art which documents the creation of another scam “street artist” thierry guetta. fun.
shanghai. dibakar banerjee’s first mis-step is still very good. more than slightly moralistic the film still manages to make some indelible images of bureaucracy and small town india. the language is where he falters and also in the evocation of place. the decision to make the town a generic indian city- i didn’t think helped.
rowdy rathore – rocking good time. prabhudeva cracks it again this time- in spite of being saddled with akshay kumar.
the saroj khan story – saroj khan is a diva. the story arc is pretty much predictable like a hindi film- but seeing her in the background at aaiye meherbaan is a real trip. and it has madhuri dixit too. so there.
27 down – i am supposed to like this film- but i could not get over the predictable story telling- though some bombay train images were fabulous in black and white.
supermen of malegaon – it is good that the film in the film is a comedy. we laugh then at the places where we are supposed to laugh and not at the people making the film. warm loving film.
a nous la libertie – rene clair doing a chaplin and a tati. two scoundrels let loose on a phonograph company wreak havoc- but also make the factory the incredible machine making for much leisure.
gangs of wasseypur – pissed me off so bad with its idea of bullying as humor. and badly made too. and manoj vajpai hams his ass off.
Labels: anime, bollywood, documentary, english, european experimental, france, germany, hollywood, indian documentary, japan
Sunday, March 18, 2012
film list - march 18th, 2012
spring
summer autumn winter, kim ki-duk: a parable about growing up,
innocence and our relationship with nature. an abandoned child is raised by a
monk living in a boat that floats on a lake. time cycles and life cycles
intertwine.
the
Burmese harp, kon ichikawa: music in a time of war. a
man who turns into a monk when faced with the horrors of war.
wr:
the mysteries of the orgasm, dusan makayev: mad intercutting
between fiction and documentary footage- some crazy sexuality, revolution and
violence surrounding the theories of wilhelm reich who wrote the mass
psychology of fascism
children
of heaven, majid majidi: iranian expertise in making the
quotodian profound. a pair of lost shoes in a poverty stricken family.
suzhou
river, lou ye: it is amazing how much the riverfront has
changed since the film was made. warehouses and derelict builldings form the
background of this love story of love lost and found in mirrors- and video.
characters slip in between one another,
from
prada to nada, angel garcia: yeesh- yet another retelling
of sense and sensibility but this time in a rich los angeles hispanic home. the
girls are pretty and so are the boys.
the
fountain, darren arnovsky: i should have liked this but the
profound meditations on love and death left me cold- as did the special
effects. motifs repeat across the three different time zones- the mayan (?),
the current and some strange future with floating men and a tree of life
the
birds, alfred hitchcock: if there is one thing i remember
being even stranger than the killer birds it is strange mother son relationship.
something odd about that and truly terrifying. and then the famous schoolyard
sequence and the gas station that explodes.
ikiru,
akira kurosawa: a bureaucrat when he learns of his impending death does
something good - for a change- turns a dump into a garden. lovely soft film
mission
impossible 4, brad bird: in his first live action,
animated director makes cruise even more of a cutout. thank god. who goes to
see mission impossible for more than that? the burj sequence is rocking. but
most of the rest is a colour by numbers action film.
that
obscure object of desire, luis bunuel: poor frustrated obsessed
man. desperate to get laid and constantly laid off. the exlplosion at the end
is random and is really the only way the film could end.
throne of blood, akira
kurosawa: terrific retelling of macbeth. strange goin ons in the woods and a
evil lady macbeth- fantastic sequences- especially the death by a torrent of
arrows.
the
refuge, francois ozon: the refuge is a house on the beach
where a greiving girlfriend mourns for her dead lover (who dies of a drug
overdose) in the company of the gay brother of her lover.light weight
seriousness.
jeanne
dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 bruxelles, chantal akerman: a
demanding 3 hour opus that repeats in cycles the routines of everyday life of a
middle aged housewife. she also doubles as a prostitute to earn a little more
money. when unexpectedly a client manages to get her to climax- she kills him.
woyzeck,
werner herzog: set in a provincial small town, woyzeck is a soldier who
suspects his wife of having an affair with a drum major. murder follows.
a
separation, asghar farhadi: terrific new iranian family drama
about a family coming apart when a cleaning lady loses her child when pushed by
the man of the house. highly recommended
agneepath,
karan malhotra: framed like a terrific graphic novel- an old fasioned drama in
a spanking new avatar. i miss these films. everyone is good but is overshadowed
by the fantasitc set peices thorugh the film. the hanging, the ganpati festival,
the mad end.
the
phantom of liberty, luis bunuel: like an exquisite corpse of
unrelated ramdom encounters. follow one story and lead into the next.
absolutely brilliant- the architecture jokes are the best- the one with the
porn photos of historic buildings or the shitting table.
potiche,
francois ozon: playful and fun, gerard depardieu and catherine deneuve in
romantic comedy about a rich housewife taking over her husbands business when
he falls ill.
the
skin i live in, perdor almodovar: the new almodovar has
very little of his madcap humour when he is looking at strange sexual
obsessions. the skin metaphor is beaten to death when a man transforms the
rapist of his daughter into his wife.
drive, Nicholas Winding Refn -
new hollywood seeped in a lurid los angeles but rendered in love. neon at night
as our stuntman and driver for hire for robberies falls for a lovely married
neighbour and her kid. gorgeous to look at- especially the night shots.
the turin horse, bela tarr -
from the story of nietzsche seeing a horse being whipped by his owner we follow
the story to the pastoral home of the horse who lives with his owner and his
daughter. the long takes, the rhythm of everyday life in the house is broken
suddenly when the horse refuses to eat. the water then runs dry. catastrophe
approaches from over the hill. but there is no escape. the storm refuses to let
up. the crises of modernity is on the horizon. faith in the predictable is
over. god is dead.
baran, majid majidi - an encounter
between the afghan refugees taking shelter from the war in tehran and a
construction worker who falls in love- of sorts with a girl playing a man to
keep the household running.
the forsaken land, vimukti
jayasundara - the first sri lankan film i saw. set on the edge of the war-
where an unmarried woman waits with her brother and his wife- for salvation.
from the ravages of the landscape torn by the residue of what happens when
brutality strikes. random murders, loneliness and the breakdown of the family.
india song, marguerite duras - the
heterotopic landscape of the world of the colony sequestered away in the middle
fo an unknown world- in this case made stranger by the fact that the house in
which the film is supposedly set looks like notihgn in calcutta. a lonely wife
of a diplomat has mmultiple affairs with many mne- they all bleed into each
other. the film wraps itself in a haze of ennui. in long self indulgent
nothingness. ghosts emerge from memory and history.
the man from london, bela tarr - bela tarr's mystery murder story- like a graham greene novel. in the dreary town a watchman watches a man being murdered from his tower at night. he finds a suitcase full of money and tries to buy the affections of his daughter. the man from london is a shrewd investigator who comes to the city to find the killer.
the milky way, luis bunuel - an older route of pilgrimage is turned into the central spatial narrative from where spin out bunuels random free associational takes on christainity and religion. stories follow each other randomly as times are juxtaposed one over the other. jesus christ makes some guest appearances.
Labels: bollywood, france, germany, hollywood, hungary, iran, japan, korea, serbia, spain, sri lanka
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