The cinema thread

[mass]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

i don't know anything about guitars or amps... that's awesome though. i was just reading about the director (albert pyun), and on his wiki entry it says: "Having trained under the legendary Akira Kurosawa, he has been acknowledged for squeezing dramatic cinematography into otherwise low budget productions. Japanese superstar Toshiro MIfune and Kurosawa's cameraman Takao Saito were Pyun's mentors and its clear his eye was trained by his experience in Japan."



haha wow. i also read he was originally filming the sequel to masters of the universe along with the spiderman movie... something fell through with both of them and cyborg is made with all the sets/costumes/everything else that they had already prepared for he-man 2.



!!!

[Faust]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

I watched Babel last night. Incredibly powerful and done just right. It stops short of gratuitous display of human misery a la Requiem for a Dream (or even 21 Grams). It dips you into human misery, but it also lifts you out of it (but leaves an imprint that allows you to reflect), and as a viewer, I appreciate it. It definitely makes you appreciate life (again) and realize (again) that it's such a fragile thing, that it sometimes depends on people who are in control but irresponsible at the same time. It also had an existentialist angle showing that your actions carry weight and responsibility for your actions is your own. The cultural stereotypes (such as "the american tourist") were not overdone, which was also a +. A really solid film overall.

[Faust]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

Someone tried to pursuade me to go see 300. WTF?

[Servo2000]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

Just watched Brick yesterday. Movies about highschool seem to be better when you're in highschool, so I don't know that this would stand up to many of our film afficionados here, but I enjoyed it. Interesting characters, fairly intriguing imagery. I don't know, it worked for me.

[Casius]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="Faust"]I watched Babel last night. Incredibly powerful and done just right. It stops short of gratuitous display of human misery a la Requiem for a Dream (or even 21 Grams). It dips you into human misery, but it also lifts you out of it (but leaves an imprint that allows you to reflect), and as a viewer, I appreciate it. It definitely makes you appreciate life (again) and realize (again) that it's such a fragile thing, that it sometimes depends on people who are in control but irresponsible at the same time. It also had an existentialist angle showing that your actions carry weight and responsibility for your actions is your own. The cultural stereotypes (such as "the american tourist") were not overdone, which was also a +. A really solid film overall.
[/quote]<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>You know Faust I just watched Babel a few days ago and I really didn't enjoy it. Something about the story left me wanting to know more about some of the characters, specifically Pitt and Blanchett's characters and thier life. What I found interesting though is the fact I got much more from watching the def Japanese girl in terms of anguish, misery, and a sense of belonging. She didn't even speak a word, but for me the performance was astounding in the fact she conveyed so much emotion. Also, something about the connection between all the stories just didn't seem at all plausible to me as it seemed almost 'too easy'. </DIV><DIV>I will say most of the actors gave amazing performances but the story just felt lacking to me. I much preferred "Crash" when comparing the genre of film.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>

[Faust]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread



/\ Yep, you are not the first. I think the NYT critic who reviewed it, was also dissatisfied with the plot. I agree that the connections made are pretty facile (especially Japan - Middle East connection). I didn't mind though, I was more taken with the emotion, just like you were. That actress deserved an Oscar for sure.</p>

I liked Crash, too. If you like that genre, I recommend 13 Conversations About One Thing. It was an indie movie, easily forgotten by the media, but it resonated with me.
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[PrinceOfCats]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

'Climates' by Nuri Bilge Ceylan is probably the worst film I've seen in a long time. If I didn't know better, I'd say the director had just graduated from film school - it's seems to be made by someone who knows a lot about what's cool in arthouse film, but is so heavy-handed in implementing it that it's painful... I think the Voice just rated it because they were like 'Ooo, non-professional actors, it's like De Sica'.

[Fuuma]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread



[quote user="PrinceOfCats"]'Climates' by Nuri Bilge Ceylan is probably the worst film I've seen in a long time. If I didn't know better, I'd say the director had just graduated from film school - it's seems to be made by someone who knows a lot about what's cool in arthouse film, but is so heavy-handed in implementing it that it's painful... I think the Voice just rated it because they were like 'Ooo, non-professional actors, it's like De Sica'.
[/quote]</P>


Oh really, damn, I thought Uzak (distant) was pretty good, did you see that one?</P>

[Casius]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="Faust"]

I liked Crash, too. If you like that genre, I recommend 13 Conversations About One Thing. It was an indie movie, easily forgotten by the media, but it resonated with me.
</P>[/quote]<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Cool, I'll have to check that out as I've never heard of it. </DIV>

[Faust]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread



Little Miss Sunshine. It was very funny at times, but the overall darkenss of the film overshadowed the funny parts a bit too much at times, so I felt guilty laughing in a few places... I hope that makes sense. The final scene is priceless though, I almost fell off my couch.</p>

Also watched Amadeus - not impressed at all. Not sure why it's praised so much.</p>

[Incroyable]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="Fuuma"]

Fuuma's top 100 movies: 10's</p><ul><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Vampires, les/France/Feuillade/1916: Engrossing crime serial with a macabre edge, the main character is boring but you?ll be cheering for the amoral members of ?les vampires? gang</font></font></span>[/list]

[/quote]</p>

An interesting vampire film is the Danish Vampyr which has the Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg in a role. The Baron was the world's first male fashion editor, at Vogue with Diana Vreeland and people like Carmel Snow--at Harper's Bazaar--as contemporaries.
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[Incroyable]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

[quote user="destroyed"]

to tie things together, this all fits in with herzog's minnesota declaration that i posted a few pages back now. abstraction works on the same level as poetry-----it touches a subterranean truth, rather than the hollow exterior "facts" of which realists are so fond.</p>

PS i have "the conversation" waiting for me at home-----wooot!</p>

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PPS yay for godard's weekend!
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[/quote]</p>

This was also the justification given by the '50s &amp; '60s American esthetes in defense of the Abstract Expressionists as it supposedly consecrated a mutual transcendence . Most vitriolic of the supporters was the lapsed Jew, Clement Greenberg.</p>

Kant also elaborated this concept in his "Critique of Pure Judgement", and to an extent, <font size="-1">Søren Kierkegaard in his "Either-Or" with his "aesthetic phase".</font>
<font size="-1"></font></p>

<font size="-1">Incidentally, Leo Strauss touched upon the esthetics of existentialism and its abstract convictions when he noted that the movement had a solid center but a fat exterior.
</font></p>

<font size="-1">However, to discount cinema verite--or its tenets of realism--too easily is an error, I feel, as it contains a particular grotesque beauty, not dissimilar to the photography of Diane Arbus. </font>
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Goodness, I sound like one of those academics.</p>

[Casius]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

Just bought the movie "Blood Diamond" and I must say I really enjoyed it (watched it twice already this week).<DIV> Djimon Hounsou was incredible, some of the scenes with him and his son where really emotional to watch and he does such a great job conveying his anger on screen. I think he needs more leading roles in future movies, I've enjoyed watching him ever since Amistad.</DIV><DIV> Leonardo has surprised me with how good of an actor he has become over the last 7 years or more. Going from Titantic to something like Catch me if you can, I thought he grew up so much as an actor. Now with movies like the Departed and Blood Diamond, he has shown some incredible range and that he can provide some great accents. The South African accent he did in Blood Diamond was great and having met plenty of people from South Africa, I thought it was dead on. </DIV><DIV> The movie was pretty much non stop action with some pretty terrifying situations and conditions. It definitely keeps you on your heels and takes you for a journey of struggle, emotion, and greed. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV> All in all, I give it two thumbs up. :)</DIV>

[Faust]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

I think DiCaprio was always a good actor - if you look at films like What's Eating Gilbert Grap and Basketball Diaries - he's amazing. Titanic was his "I-will-now-become-a-household-name" film. But it looks like he's taking the Johnny Depp route with the huge blockbusters. It's all right, I guess - but that's not where an actor's strength lies. I'd like to see him in theater. I look at these guys who are a right mix of a good actor and a pretty face (DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt), and I sometimes wish they were ugly and stuck to more challenging roles :-). They do a nice mix though - just when I'm ready to give up on Pitt he'll do a Snatch or Babel. Still waiting for Depp to do something worthwhile these days...

[Faust]

Re: Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second: The cinema thread

On a more artsy-fartsy note - I have Zizek! in my house - can't wait to get to it tonight. I only missed him by a year or so - could've had him as a professor.