Films

I hope you enjoy it, Moehat. Well worth a go - it's somewhat languid overall, with some fascinating intertwinings of relationships, and quite an interesting sound track of insects (probably Oz crickets). But there's a 'mystery' overarching the story... waiting for you to solve it! I said Anthony Paglia, didn't I? Wrong - I think it's La Paglia.
 
trackside528 said:
I ended up in a place called Chasers in Mallow very late one Saturday night a couple of years back.

Never again.
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:lol: It's the last chance saloon on a Sunday night to pick up a bird, although you best be willing to do the weight..

The owner of Chasers of course owns Chasers Chance with Eoghan O;Grady.
 
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Heartbreaker: Cheesiest of chick flicks. Loved it. No-one sulks like Romain Duris. Telegraphed plot, but plenty of self-depricating humour.
 
Saw It's a Wonderful Life at the cinema yesterday; asked them if they would show more old films. I'd love to watch National Velvet at 'the pictures'.
 
Its A Wonderful Life - great Christmas film - also Miracle On 34th Street (not sure I got the number right) and a good film I remember from many years ago - A Tree Grows In Brooklyn - cant seem to be able to find a download for this one.
 
I've just come out of recovery, having watched Atonement. Dear God, what a load of pretentious tosh. The moral of the story (atoning for a past sin) was fine, but the hammy acting and what looked like yet another parody of the railway station scene from Brief Encounter, complete with Kiera Knightley talking in such rapidly-clipped tones as to be incoherent (and everyone incapable of using their facial muscles to smile) - oh, please, British directors, do get over the class system!
 
Years ago, at Christmas time, they used to show a film called 'The Last Winter'. It was a sort of a ghost story about a boy and an old man and a little white pony. Loved that film; would so much like to see it again [the Americans have a way with Christmassy things when it comes to films]. Also, a tv serial called 'The Children of Green Knowe' again ghosts, but with walking trees and another little pony calle 'Feste'. I've got Miracle on 34th Street somewhere; don't think I've ever seen it..perhaps this is the year to dig it out. If [sob] there's no racing over Christmas I'll catch up on some films.
 
krizon said:
I've just come out of recovery, having watched Atonement. Dear God, what a load of pretentious tosh. The moral of the story (atoning for a past sin) was fine, but the hammy acting and what looked like yet another parody of the railway station scene from Brief Encounter, complete with Kiera Knightley talking in such rapidly-clipped tones as to be incoherent (and everyone incapable of using their facial muscles to smile) - oh, please, British directors, do get over the class system!
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It is dreadful. I sat through it expecting it to get better at any moment based on some of the reviews I had read. Didn't happen.

Quite a pompous film I thought, with about as much depth and subtlety as that other 'gem', Crash, which predictably, Americans thought was a really moving film.
 
Oh, thank goodness you agree, Hamm. After all the hoopla about the book (which I haven't read), I thought the film would be splendid. 'Pompous' - absolutely!

I don't think I've seen Crash - was that where people got off on getting seriously injured in car accidents? I think I saw about 20 minutes of that before deciding all it needed was Lesley Nielsen to come along on crutches and make it dafter than it seemed to be! There's another Crash, though, and I haven't seen any of it and, thanks to the heads-up, now won't bother!
 
I've watched Inception twice, and still don't really get it - which makes me a thicket, I suppose.

PS. Marion Cottilard playing a nutter should be a legal requirement of every film made in the future. She truly is a dreamboat.
 
Thats because it didnt have Christy Canyon getting it every 10 mins Grasshopper. There are films where that doesnt happen

I thought Crash was a decent enough film
 
krizon said:
Oh, thank goodness you agree, Hamm. After all the hoopla about the book (which I haven't read), I thought the film would be splendid. 'Pompous' - absolutely!

I don't think I've seen Crash - was that where people got off on getting seriously injured in car accidents? I think I saw about 20 minutes of that before deciding all it needed was Lesley Nielsen to come along on crutches and make it dafter than it seemed to be! There's another Crash, though, and I haven't seen any of it and, thanks to the heads-up, now won't bother!
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The latter one!
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The former is a film of a Ballard novel. I actually really enjoy reading his novels (Super Cannes and High Rise are fantastic) but I have left Crash alone for the reason you described in your post - he mellowed after that thankfully
 
Did he write The October Man? If not, I think all I've read by Ballard is Empire of the Sun, which was stunning - as was, I thought, the film.
 
clivex said:
I thought Crash was a decent enough film
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To me, Crash was one of the most cringeworthy films I've seen ... it epitomises most Americans films, as in it takes a theme, race relations in the case of Crash, needs a more than obvious plot, and needs to show a character turning himself around with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, as otherwise the audience simply wouldn't get it. That scene at the end where he rescues her from the car was one of the worst, most implausible scenes I've had the misfortune to see.

Compare that with say how Hidden dealt with racism .. that scene where Auteil's character is on edge and leaves the police station without looking, only to be nearly run down by a black man on a bike - little is said, but the confrontation between the 2, and the look Auteil gave him, was incredible - rarely will you see a more memorable scene so full of tension.

I realise though comparing with Haneke is unfair to most Directors. His box set is really good value.

I really like this interview (you probably still have your copy of the Observer?!), http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/25/interview-michael-haneke-white-ribbon?INTCMP=SRCH and in particular 3 quotes:

Born in Munich, Haneke has lived in Austria all his life and has a distinctly European artistic sensibility. American cinema is dismissed with a wave of the hand as "cultural imperialism". How so? "I hate films that try to make me more stupid than I am, and there are a lot.
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Haneke's work never offers one simple answer where several complicated enigmas will do. As a director, he believes firmly that a film should pose more problems than it solves; his ideal viewer is "one who leaves with questions". Does he find it irritating when people who have seen his films ask him what happened next? "It's not at all irritating because it's a normal question. I say: take a look at the film, let it go through your head, consider what you want to think about it. People always want answers, but only liars have the answers.
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Much of Haneke's film work seems to have been conceived as an antidote to what he believes is the debilitating immediacy of television. "We're used, from TV, to scenes giving immediate information, so that the viewer thinks 'I've seen it. I understand it. Next,' and you never really get to the point of having a particular sensitivity to the situation
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Someone should film a film that wraps up all of Haneke's films in one neat tale. I'm thinking the son from Hidden, the children from White Ribbon, the two lads from Funny games in some kind of Battle Royale-esque showdown.

That would drive him mad.
 
Hamm said:
I've seen the American which is worth a look, great shots but weak characters and plot.

Don't make the mistake I did Sunday - Practice makes easier (turned up late to the film I wanted to see and saw Little White Lies had given this a great review so thought why not) - an awful awful film which is basically 2 hours of a guy repeatedly masturbating during phone sex with a random girl who had randomly called him one night - turns out at the end when he finally meets her that the girl is a weedy black guy. I am telling you the end so you don't make the mistake I did of losing 2 hours of your life watching such drivel. More proof very few good films come america.

What's the Mallow cinema like? Oh for the days of the Capitol...
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Capitol will re-open the new year
 
Tonight, via FilmFlex, tried Get Him to the Greek with Russell Brand and no discernible other 'stars'. Completely daft, but with a gloriously OTT camping-about from Brand playing all the worst excesses of a (faded) rock star. Plenty of gross-out nonsense, but actually pretty funny and, surprise for me, Brand can hold a tune well, too. He has a curiously feminine body shape, complete with pert man boobs, which, with his tresses, adds to his androgyny - not an unpleasant assembly, though. Overall, if he's in something similar later on, I'd be fine with idling away 90 minutes with it.

I've not seen the films by the director you're talking about, but don't you think sometimes they get a bit precious? "Only liars have the answers" strikes me as a bit of cod(swallop) philosophy - I'm assuming he believes there are no answers to high-flown moral uncertainties, rather than "So, is it going to pass its MOT?" but that's where high-toned directors lose their own plots. Most of us barge, waddle, or waft our way through our lives (sometimes all three) with very little idea of moral certainties or "particular sensitivities to a situation". You swipe that over the broadest canvas of global society and most of it's based on simplistic sentimentality, not the 'deeper' questions of who's right, who's wrong, or whether there is such a truth as a universal right or wrong

(Sorry about that. We've found her meds. We may let her back later when they take effect. Ed.)
 
Hi Krizon, I can see where you're coming from, but if you watch Hidden, I can assure you it will make sense - he is as perceptive, intelligent and sharp as they come, and very down to earth with it ... and what is even better is the interview with him on the Hidden DVD (have you seen this Betsmate?) ... the only interview I've ever seen that compares it Kieslowski's 'I'm so so' on the Three Colours trilogy.

Regarding the whole concept of truth, I can see why it may appear pompous, but I've read quite a bit on this by Beckett and it is philosophically very interesting.
 
I got Perrier's Bounty out on DVD recently and enjoyed it. Shutter Island, Garage, and Sherlock Holmes weren't bad. Nearly every other film I've got since joining Screenclick 6 months ago has been shite.
 
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