Films Recently Watched

[Taupe Beats]

@Nebraska You saw Come and See at age 10? Very curious about background to that. My dad recommended A Clockwork Orange to me at age 11 and I remember thinking that was a bold recommendation after seeing it. Come and See at age 10 would have traumatized me for life!

So much fascinating backstory to that film. For instance:

Spoiler

The swamp scene was not doctored in any way. It's been reported that Klimov knew that the leads would need therapy for years after its production.

As well, between this film and Throbbing Gristle, I've always found the sound of a phaser inherently macabre.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Taupe Beats

[Nebraska]

8 minutes ago, Taupe Beats said:

@Nebraska You saw Come and See at age 10? Very curious about background to that. My dad recommended A Clockwork Orange to me at age 11 and I remember thinking that was a bold recommendation after seeing it. Come and See at age 10 would have traumatized me for life!

when i young, my family watched anything about WW2 or the munich massacre a lot (mainly escape from sobibor and 21 hrs in munich). my aunt at the time was living in rome italy and i'd visit her and my cousins a lot. my aunt never shielded myself or my cousins about anything. when i was there, i had brought up the scene (in escape from sobibor) where people are stripped naked and put in a big room and burned. the treatment of that scene in the film isn't graphic as this was a made-for-tv movie.

one of my cousins who was older said "you should watch this film. it's like that but worse" and held out this box cover. now what i thought she meant was that entire film is just scene after scene of people being burned (i didn't understand what a gas chamber was or have a concept of it) so i figured we should watch it.

because the film is in subtitles- we just forwarded to the "killing parts". what really stuck with me was florya's and the one german soldier making a weird face and laughing. the juxtaposition of a nazi laughing and florya's face is all i remember watching and we just stopped it because "it was too much". 

another film we 'watched' like that was the gestapo's last orgy. my cousin had said "this is really hard" which i understood as it shows EVERYTHING. in that film, there is a scene where a row of nazis are standing in the dark watching a slide show of a german mother and daughter tied together in a 69 and (supposedly) it was for so long they started to have oral sex. when the lights are turned on their is a row of naked women behind them and they are instructed to turn around and do as they wish to them as a reward for fighting in the war. 
we would only watch this scene as (again) we felt it was too graphic and scaring to see what could possibly come after that.

even though my aunt knew we watched them (the tapes always started after the gas chamber scenes) she never talked to us about it.

 

 

[Rubin Farr]

It looks like dead actors are about to have afterlife careers in Hollywood:

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/11/worldwide-xr-james-dean-jimmy-stewart-digital-humans-1202188978/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[Silent Member]

Oh, that's just great.

[dr lopez]

finally we can do the chris benoit story the way it's supposed to be told

[Brisbot]

I don't think they should use actors likenesses if said actor is passed away, unless they said it was fine before death, or the actor is playing a de-aged version of themselves.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Brisbot

[Taupe Beats]

1 hour ago, Nebraska said:

because the film is in subtitles- we just forwarded to the "killing parts". what really stuck with me was florya's and the one german soldier making a weird face and laughing. the juxtaposition of a nazi laughing and florya's face is all i remember watching and we just stopped it because "it was too much". 

I know the exact moment you're referring to. Yep, I would have been bent for life if exposed to that at age 10. 

Any opinions on Gillo Pontecorvo's "Kapo"? As well, I highly recommend Sergei Loznitsa's "In the Fog". Guessing you'd appreciate it.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Taupe Beats

[Rubin Farr]

15 minutes ago, Brisbot said:

I don't think they should use actors likenesses if said actor is passed away, unless they said it was fine before death, or the actor is playing a de-aged version of themselves.

Oh they definitely get an estate's permission before acting, cue the hologram Prince tour.  Shit I'd pay to see that.  Now the Grateful Dead and Beatles can tour forever.

[sidewinder]

Party Girl (1995). Always fun watching Parker Posey.

[Nebraska]

1 hour ago, Taupe Beats said:

Any opinions on Gillo Pontecorvo's "Kapo"? As well, I highly recommend Sergei Loznitsa's "In the Fog". Guessing you'd appreciate it.

i'll check those out. i usually prefer the documentaries then from there i narrow down a specific scenario i'd like to delve deeper into whether from a film or book eg. the wannsee conference (film was amazing)  or reinhard heydrich's assassination (film was meh) or doctors working at the camps (book was pretty difficult to get through)

[beerwolf]

Birdman or (the unexpected virtue of ignorance) - 9/10

Holy fuck some annoying dork (actually he's alright lol) at work told me to watch this film (we share a similar taste in 90's metal/punk/alternative/blah blah) he's always banging on about Birdman, in fact since he told me about it he does some fucking dork Birdman expression when ever he sees me (screeching, waving his arms and pulling a ridiculous face). Hah. 

So I just finished watching it and what I thought was gonna be a huge, monstrous, pile of steaming vulture shit was actually brilliant. I'm almost tempted to say its one of the best films I've ever seen. Partly because it was so unexpected.

Man I hate jazz but I could listen to that drummer all day long. No stupid squeaking trumpet over it.

Classic fucking film 

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by beer badger

[IDEM]

^ I bought that movie years ago when it came out on Blu-ray and somehow never watched it. Will rectify that now, thanks for the incentive.

[Squee]

14 hours ago, beer badger said:

in fact since he told me about it he does some fucking dork Birdman expression when ever he sees me (screeching, waving his arms and pulling a ridiculous face). Hah.

 

Oh god.

[Zephyr_Nova]

Birdman is indeed one of the best films this side of the century.  Actually won best picture too (one of the rare times I could relate with the choice).

[dingformung]

 

[Nebraska]

this was pompous beyond belief. charlotte rampling looks delicious but the fetishizing of style and substance becomes draining- further degraded by the laconic dialogue and modest sets. this is a film attempting to communicate a very complex subject (S&M) amidst a very complex scenario (about a decade after world war 2) by discarding both scenario and subject- the nazi is no longer the master (nor the nazi) and neither is his slave- except they are (in their minds). it's cute and sexy

john zewizz used to rave about this film for his project and i can see the fascination, but i don't think this gets it

[onecaseman]

I watched The Man from Nowhere after receiving a recommendation from a friend. It's a pretty good Korean film. A little bit of Leon influence there as well as more gangster revenge stuff.

[chim]

On 11/12/2019 at 8:40 PM, Nebraska said:

this is a brutal piece of cinema. hadn't watched it since i was about 10 and back then it was too much to handle. not much has changed. lots of haunting images that get progressively worse as the story unfolds. 

  Hide contents

the speech by the german soldier about how he doesn't believe some races should exist-  comes off so powerful and ominous it almost seems like even the death of fascism doesn't nullify the ideology- like a box that was opened and now cannot be closed. and glasha's rape is one of the most powerful reminders of the after effects of this kind of tragedy i've ever seen.

The girl at the end isn't Glasha. I felt it was another poignant aspect of the movie that we don't get to know what happened to her, and probably intentional as a resemblance of innocence and youth that simply vanishes. I've seen it a few times and the combination of beautiful nature footage and spontaneous dogma-esque acting with unreserved human tragedy really stuck with me.

Edited November 17, 2019 by chim

[Squee]

Rewatched both Roar and Sleepaway Camp. Roar is such a fucking mess, whereas Sleepaway Camp is abso-fucking-lutely brilliant. Those short shorts are just *chef's kiss*

[droid]

The most harrowing film Ive seen about the Holocaust is Son of Saul. Absolutely brutal and deeply haunting.

[cwmbrancity]

On 11/12/2019 at 7:40 PM, Nebraska said:

this is a brutal piece of cinema. hadn't watched it since i was about 10 and back then it was too much to handle. not much has changed. lots of haunting images that get progressively worse as the story unfolds. 

  Reveal hidden contents

the speech by the german soldier about how he doesn't believe some races should exist-  comes off so powerful and ominous it almost seems like even the death of fascism doesn't nullify the ideology- like a box that was opened and now cannot be closed. and glasha's rape is one of the most powerful reminders of the after effects of this kind of tragedy i've ever seen.

 

First saw slightly older, late night on the only channel that broadcast late, C4. Like war itself, nothing can really prepare you for it. For years that film genuinely haunted me - so much attention to detail, the story arc, the village with the corpses piled like chopped wood behind the cabins, the swamp scene, the paratroopers & that droney spotter plane overhead, the section where the kid is temp deaf from munitions, the girl's rape, toward the end when the kid is captured the Germans still seemed grotesquely human without resorting to patronising stereotypes.

Pre-internet couldn't recall the title & had pretty much given up on ever finding a copy anywhere (add Time of the Gypsies for a similar but far more fluffy quest). Then one evening at a friend's gaff he put this battered VHS tape on the vidyo-player....jfc...words akin to "you've found it". Think it had an orig title of "Kill Hitler". Appropriate, but Come And See says & suggests everything that follows so succinctly.

3 hours ago, droid said:

The most harrowing film Ive seen about the Holocaust is Son of Saul. Absolutely brutal and deeply haunting.

The narrow frame style (Meek's Cutoff has something similar stylistically) really focuses in & forces on you that unrelenting claustrophobia. Caught it after a fkn tough day & even though i knew the subject ahead it blew through me like frost in the plaster.

[Nebraska]

i believe this is one of the first (few?) films to present a scenario of a planet populated solely by women who are dead set on eradicating men from the universe. this time there is a dedicated few leading a resistance from the queen of venus and led by zsa zsa gabor. when an all male team of astronauts crash land on the planet it adds a complicated twist to this coup attempt: some of the resistance women want the men- and the queen herself fancies the captain (though zsa zsa is also intent on snagging him for herself).

despite the fact that every woman on venus parades around in a mini skirt, heels and a perfect coiffure, the culture is extremely advanced- which begs the question: exactly why do the women need the men again?

"Women can't be happy without men."
"You're so right baby!"

those are actual quotes from the film

[cwmbrancity]

failed edit - Klimov's wife Larisa Shepitko directed The Ascent (1977), staggering film-making, WWII again but more focused on existential themes. See if its snow doesn't get in yer bones:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075404/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1

[cruising for burgers]

On 11/13/2019 at 7:37 PM, Rubin Farr said:

It looks like dead actors are about to have afterlife careers in Hollywood:

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/11/worldwide-xr-james-dean-jimmy-stewart-digital-humans-1202188978/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

 

[Taupe Beats]

20 hours ago, cwmbrancity said:

failed edit - Klimov's wife Larisa Shepitko directed The Ascent (1977), staggering film-making, WWII again but more focused on existential themes. See if its snow doesn't get in yer bones:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075404/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1

Even though he was in Tarkovsky's greatest films, this film may have Anatoliy Solonitsyn's best performance.

Edit:  And Shepitko died during production of this film and Klimov had to finish the film on her behalf.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Taupe Beats