Hi guys
I´m writing to you from Mar del Plata. I´m covering the 23rd internacional film festival.
I want to recommend 5 movies:
Still Waking (Hirokazu Koreeda)
Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Pa Ra Da (Marco Pontecorvo)
L`Heure D´Ete (Olivier Assayas)
The Stranger in Me (Emily Attef)
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
3rd i South Asian Film Festival came to town:
Maqbool (Vishal Bharadwaj, 2003)
6/10
Adaptation of Shakespeare's "Scottish Play" into Mumbai's Muslim "mafia" has very good performances and plenty of gravitas (even taking into account the musical numbers) but little visual panache. It's a pretty straight adaptation that doesn't really shed new light on the Bard's themes and structures.
Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007)
8/10
Bollywood at its most lavish and narratively overstuffed, but also in knowingly self-parodistic mode. For a while it seems like the Indian equivalent to what the folks behind Singin' in the Rain were doing for the previous generation of films in 1952, but soon enough it spins off in a dozen or more unlikely directions. If it's as witty as Green & Comden's script, then that doesn't exactly translate across language and cultural barriers. But there's a real ingenuity to the satire derived from the structure of the film. And the film's few annoyances (product placements, bad puns, icky gender roles, and the occasional potty humor) are quickly forgotten into this fast-paced assault of movie references (which I'm sure I didn't catch a quarter of), plot twists, eye-popping dance numbers, and intentionally over-the-top performances.
Maqbool (Vishal Bharadwaj, 2003)
6/10
Adaptation of Shakespeare's "Scottish Play" into Mumbai's Muslim "mafia" has very good performances and plenty of gravitas (even taking into account the musical numbers) but little visual panache. It's a pretty straight adaptation that doesn't really shed new light on the Bard's themes and structures.
Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007)
8/10
Bollywood at its most lavish and narratively overstuffed, but also in knowingly self-parodistic mode. For a while it seems like the Indian equivalent to what the folks behind Singin' in the Rain were doing for the previous generation of films in 1952, but soon enough it spins off in a dozen or more unlikely directions. If it's as witty as Green & Comden's script, then that doesn't exactly translate across language and cultural barriers. But there's a real ingenuity to the satire derived from the structure of the film. And the film's few annoyances (product placements, bad puns, icky gender roles, and the occasional potty humor) are quickly forgotten into this fast-paced assault of movie references (which I'm sure I didn't catch a quarter of), plot twists, eye-popping dance numbers, and intentionally over-the-top performances.
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barrybrooks8
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Big Magilla
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Damien, where did you see The Story of Three Loves? IMDb doesn't even show it ever being released on VHS.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
a Fool There Was (Frank Powell, 1915)
A rare surviving Theda Bara film, and noteworthy as the one that made her a star, but the tight range of shooting techniques combined with intertitles that do little to advance the story (based on a familiar stage play of the time, which was in turn based on a famous Rudyard Kipling poem) make it difficult to appreciate except in isolated moments. Bara's acting exhibits some real surprise and power at times, but her role is not as large as one would hope- most of the film focuses on the victims of her 'vampirism'.
3/10
A rare surviving Theda Bara film, and noteworthy as the one that made her a star, but the tight range of shooting techniques combined with intertitles that do little to advance the story (based on a familiar stage play of the time, which was in turn based on a famous Rudyard Kipling poem) make it difficult to appreciate except in isolated moments. Bara's acting exhibits some real surprise and power at times, but her role is not as large as one would hope- most of the film focuses on the victims of her 'vampirism'.
3/10
The Story Of Three Loves
10/10
Extraordinary, just extraordinary. Over the top romanticism as good as it gets. And the film -- which consists of three vignettes -- conveys the unique enchantment of falling in love as well as any other picture I can think of. Vincente Minnelli, of course, but who knew Gottfried Reinhardt?. Penelope, you're gonna love this. Great performances by Moira Shearer, James Mason, Ricky Nelson, Ethel Barrymore, Farley Granger, Kirk Douglas and Pier Angeli. It's not just uninihibitedly romantic, it's very intelligent and sophisticated as well. And it possesses a tender heart. All this and Rachmaninov, too.
Edited By Damien on 1226731072
10/10
Extraordinary, just extraordinary. Over the top romanticism as good as it gets. And the film -- which consists of three vignettes -- conveys the unique enchantment of falling in love as well as any other picture I can think of. Vincente Minnelli, of course, but who knew Gottfried Reinhardt?. Penelope, you're gonna love this. Great performances by Moira Shearer, James Mason, Ricky Nelson, Ethel Barrymore, Farley Granger, Kirk Douglas and Pier Angeli. It's not just uninihibitedly romantic, it's very intelligent and sophisticated as well. And it possesses a tender heart. All this and Rachmaninov, too.
Edited By Damien on 1226731072
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Fort Saganne (1984; Alain Corneau) 7/10
French soldier Gérard Depardieu rises through the ranks by displaying valor and ingenuity in battling Algerian rebels (and other French officers) just before WWI, while getting caught up in a romantic triangle involving heiress Sophie Marceau and free-thinking journalist Catherine Deneuve. Leisurely paced epic boasts gorgeous cinematography by Bruno Nuytten and an exquisite score by Philippe Sarde (both marvelously preserved in this DVD), but despite incidental moments of power, film as a whole is rather inert. I'm probably being too lenient, but you know I'm a sucker for French historical epics.
French soldier Gérard Depardieu rises through the ranks by displaying valor and ingenuity in battling Algerian rebels (and other French officers) just before WWI, while getting caught up in a romantic triangle involving heiress Sophie Marceau and free-thinking journalist Catherine Deneuve. Leisurely paced epic boasts gorgeous cinematography by Bruno Nuytten and an exquisite score by Philippe Sarde (both marvelously preserved in this DVD), but despite incidental moments of power, film as a whole is rather inert. I'm probably being too lenient, but you know I'm a sucker for French historical epics.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
Damien wrote:Reza wrote:Penelope wrote:Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998; Patrice Chéreau) 6/10
What is with movies like Rachel Getting Married and this one: a bunch of great actors giving great performances, but at the service of a ridiculous, pretentious script that never really makes any sense, and offers characters that are so distasteful you keep hoping Jason Vorhees will turn up to bring it to a quick end. That said, the last few minutes are breathtaking.
Really??? I guess 11 Cesar nods don't mean a thing then!
Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train is probably my least favorite film of the 1990s. I absolutely despise that vile piece of misanthropic crap.
LOL
I really have to watch this now!!
Edited By Reza on 1226715269
I used to be religious about rating on imdb, but for a while I wasn't so. I just got back into doing it again recently (now that it's so easy- a single click when on the main page for a film).Eric wrote:Curious to know which ones.
Turns out I've given out seventeen 10s, all to films I've seen multiple times, and at least once in a good print in a cinema. Each of the films not only seems hardly improvable from a formal/aesthetic standpoint, but also have great sentimental associations for me. There are surely a few titles that meet those criteria but are still missing, from the period during which I wasn't carefully rating everything.
2001: Space Odyssey
Banshun (Late Spring)
the Company
the Conversation
the Far Country
the Kid Brother
Morocco
a Movie
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Play Time
Règle du jeu, La (the Rules of the Game)
the Searchers
Sud Sanaeha (Blissfully Yours)
Suna no onna (the Woman in the Dunes)
Sunrise: a Song of Two Humans
the Unknown
Vertigo
Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train is probably my least favorite film of the 1990s. I absolutely despise that vile piece of misanthropic crap.Reza wrote:Penelope wrote:Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998; Patrice Chéreau) 6/10
What is with movies like Rachel Getting Married and this one: a bunch of great actors giving great performances, but at the service of a ridiculous, pretentious script that never really makes any sense, and offers characters that are so distasteful you keep hoping Jason Vorhees will turn up to bring it to a quick end. That said, the last few minutes are breathtaking.
Really??? I guess 11 Cesar nods don't mean a thing then!
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Eric
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Curious to know which ones.rain Bard wrote:I'm extremely stingy with 10's (I think I've used it less than a dozen times out of my thousands of imdb ratings)
I'm fairly stingy with my 10s too, but I haven't rated on IMDB very often, so most of my ratings are pretty old.
Âge d'or, L' (1930)
3 Women (1977)
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (1971)
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Blonde Venus (1932)
Campanadas a medianoche (1965)
Chronique d'un été (Paris 1960) (1961)
Duck Amuck (1953)
Europa '51 (1952)
Femme Fatale (2002)
Fond de l'air est rouge, Le (1977)
The Fury (1978)
Gertrud (1964)
Hi, Mom! (1970)
Ivan Groznyy II: Boyarsky zagovor (1958)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Jetée, La (1962)
The Ladies Man (1961)
Light Is Calling (2004)
Locataire, Le (1976)
Love Streams (1984)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Marnie (1964)
Play Time (1967)
Règle du jeu, La (1939)
Sans soleil (1983)
Showgirls (1995)
Simón del desierto (1965)
Stromboli (1950)
Ta'm e guilass (1997)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Un chant d'amour (1950)