The cinema thread

[mass]

loved palindromes!

todd solondz is great i think

[raddy]

Sunshine - Can't believe I missed this for so long. Though the first 3/4 were amazing and the last act a bit of a letdown, but still very awesome. I really love the semi-flawed Garland-Boyle films. (The Beach, 28 days, Sunshine) It's very reminiscient of old sci-fi horror where the creeping unease that something isn't right or something is about to go horribly wrong just gnaws and gnaws and your anxiety is really born out of compassion for the characters not omg-monster-surprise. My gripe is that it somewhat descends into vindictive punish-people's-mistakes horror cliche, but it was nonetheless gorgeous and weirdly cathartic.

Triad Election - Liked it, but none of the recent Johnnie To films have much energy. The story was alternately clever and stupidly obvious. Lots of nice long shots and 90s HK pacing.

[mass]

i think election is only ok, but i still enjoy it obviously. but i disagree about the pacing, i feel it is kind of all over the place

i think election 2 is much better

[Fade to Black]

Haven't seen Palindromes anywhere

I did watch Happiness about 2 weeks ago...very creepy film. The Philip Seymour Hoffman phone harassment at work and then quick turnaround to give a comment about the playoffs was a gut buster.

Election 1 is better acted, but Election 2 is the overall better film

[BECOMING-INTENSE]

Strange Fish dir. David Hinton(1992)

Adapted for the screen by Lloyd Newson and David Hinton
Based on the stage production Strange Fish conceived and
directed by Lloyd Newson

[homi]

watched watchmen again today, didnt translate so well to the small screen as seeing it in theatres. I still like the film but theres some scenes that are kinda poorly done or the music is all wrong (99 luft balloons really?)

overall though I think it came out about as well as it could have

[Aleks]

^ I actually like the end in the movie more than the ending of the graphic novel.

I saw Taxi Driver and Crash in the last few days. Crash was absolutely chilling and perverse.

[Faust]

Watching a film based on Bulgakov's The White Guard. Nauseating Soviet propaganda voice-overs notwithstanding, it's pretty faithful to the book so far and well-acted, which is not something Soviet/Russian cinema is known for.

[Bosozoku]

Yesterday evening watched TONY TAKITANI by Jun Ichikawa, based on a short story by Murakami. The beauty is in its slow pace, narrative and the slow deterioration of the "protagonist" into loneliness and desperation.

[galia]

Faust, I'm surprised you feel this way, I've seen a lot of splendidly acted russian films, and russian theatre is also really good in this respect, from what I've seen

maybe it's because franch acting is traditionnally so bad that I see it this way by comparison. I also usually fing typical "hollywood" acting annoying so whatever

[Faust]

Well, there are some wonderful Soviet films, but I could probably not count more than a dozen. And post-Soviet cinema is a concise history of FAIL. I can only think of one decent film, Brat. Idiot was not bad, but it wasn't good either. Burned by the sun, ehh.. 12, ehh... I hate Mihalkov. Master and Margarita was horrible.

[Faust]

Well, there are some wonderful Soviet films, but I could probably not count more than a dozen. And post-Soviet cinema is a concise history of FAIL. I can only think of one decent film, Brat. Idiot was not bad, but it wasn't good either. Burned by the sun, ehh.. 12, ehh... I hate Mihalkov. Master and Margarita was horrible.

[galia]

I really need to see brat
I like some lounguine, and I like early mikhalkov and I love what I saw of zvianguintsev

However, I generally agree with your statement, except I'm surprised you think the problem is in the acting. to me the russian acting tradition is one of the best in the world. directing is another matter, but a country that gave tarkovsky gets a free pass for a few decades I think

[Faust]

Just realized that "brat" in English means something else entirely.

[galia]

yeah, it sounds like we're talking about the sequel to mean girls or something