The cinema thread

[Faust]

I am sure it's decent, being a Nolan film, but looks like I've completely missed the near-Avatar hype. I just read the A.O.Scott predictably lukewarm review, and the following rings true:

The accomplishments of “Inception” are mainly technical, which is faint praise only if you insist on expecting something more from commercial entertainment. That audiences do — and should — expect more is partly, I suspect, what has inspired some of the feverish early notices hailing “Inception” as a masterpiece, just as the desire for a certifiably great superhero movie led to the wild overrating of “The Dark Knight.” In both cases Mr. Nolan’s virtuosity as a conjurer of brilliant scenes and stunning set pieces, along with his ability to invest grandeur and novelty into conventional themes, have fostered the illusion that he is some kind of visionary.

[munch]

haven't watched Inception yet but to me it feels like the director has watched Paprika a few times. anyone familiar with it?
could recommend Paprika for those who haven't seen it, though it's an anime so might not be everyones taste. but it's a very cool movie

[Faust]

so, according to this review, the fact that i find it enjoyable to watch was due in part to my lack of sophistication as someone who watches films?

seriously though, its a real speculative sci fi sort of film, which there haven't really been that many of in the past decade or so. on the merit of that, its really quite pleasant. i wouldn't lump that in with the 'avatar hype' or whatever. go see it/download it, whatever else. might be too pedestrian for the local cognoscenti ?

No, the fact that you are sick and tired of the unbearable amount of stupidity in hollywood films and therefore are bound to positively overreact to a half-decent one.

[Fuuma]

No, the fact that you are sick and tired of the unbearable amount of stupidity in hollywood films and therefore are bound to positively overreact to a half-decent one.

Let's say a quarter decent, went to see it with someone else (didn't know it existed) and it is not very good. Nolan manages to make a movie about dreams without exploring the unconscious or dreamlike logic; the best he can come with is the exotic locales of action movies. Life wouldn't be worth living if your interior dreamspace was directed by some second-rate James Bond franchise director. There was even some product placement in the fucking dreams...

The guy is a talented technician and you might be entertained (he makes good "action sets") but to say the movie is demanding is an insult to the human spirit.

The "ambiguous" ending and nerdlike precision of 4 levels of dreaming/set happening at once will ensure a healthy following of geeks mistaking this movie-engineering crap for intellectual depth.

note: also their shirt collars were usually 1cm too big and it really annoyed me.

[MoFiya]

Avatar was a complete fail, though. (but 3d isn't compatible to my brain anyway, e.g. it's not working)

But sometimes I think ... well I wish that there weren't as much technical possibilities. I tend to watch older films, b/w or even without speech (not as a criteria but as a marker of technical possibilities). There's (sometimes) just put more thought into how to create certain effects within the given constraints, thus, more drama within the actors gestures, facial expressions etc... less action for the nowadays viewer (too much going on!!!). If you go back further, to films where the dialogue is being faded in, the selection of words even have to be more sophisticated.

In regards to Christopher Nolan: fuck action, I want subliminal drama. Will watch anyway. Prestige was good!

[PrinceOfCats]

ménilmontant (dimitri kirsanoff, 1926)

a classic which i had somehow never seen before (and is generally a bit overlooked), but which certainly merits being mentioned in the same breath as l'atalante, l'age d'or, la coquille et le clergyman, etc when discussing this era of film.

POI: Menilmontant comes on the DVD boxed-set 'Avant Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 30s' which has plenty of other must-see stuff: Dulac, Man Ray, Epstein...

IIRC, there might even be a special edition of the Velvet Light Trap on Menilmontant.


In other news, I've had Nolan's card marked ever since he made that 'thriller' Memento with all the nastiness of Death Wish/Dirty Harry and none of the technical skill of the director he clearly wants to be (Hitchcock). Haven't seen anything since then that's changed my mind.

[Fade to Black]

damn, Fuuma completely deconstructed Nolan's entire being.

did you like The Matrix?

[Faust]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves with Nolan bashing - Memento was a fantastic film.

[Fade to Black]

Saw Inception, it was a bit of a letdown mainly due to what fuuma said about the structure of the dreams themselves. It's a very conventional story both in its premise and execution except wrapped in a very intricate conceptualization - I get the sense Leo played this character better in Shutter Island. Definitely wouldn't rank this at the peak of Nolan's oeuvre thus far; Memento, Insomnia and The Dark Knight packed more punch.

[sam_tem]

My Best Fiend

continuing on my foray through herzog's back catalog brings me to his documentary of his work/relationship with klaus kinski. i haven't bothered to read anything else about klaus yet to see how accurate of a picture this paints of him, but i think the movies he made in collaboration with herzog are certainly worth the grandiose talk/treatment they're given here so i took it all at face value. This film does have the benefit that it can be approached from multiple sides (in-depth look at troubled artist cliche, one of film's greatest tag teams, behind the scenes footage of some classic movies in the making) but certainly it's greatest achievement is that by the end of the film you truly feel the love/bond that herzog and kinski had together. Everything aside, this is definitely something to watch even if you have no interest in herzog, kinski, or even film for that matter. It stands on it's own as a great documentary.


Aguirre, Wrath of God

should have watched this before my best fiend, but oh well. so many things to love about this movie that i'm not quite sure where to start. klaus was of course great, but unfortunately many of the supporting actor's are very weak so i can see why klaus was such a big part of this movie. visually, there's lots of stunning takes in this movie and i love how claustrophobic the jungle becomes. it can be hard to adjust the eyes to seeing mid-century spanish soldiers trapsing through a peruvian jungle, but i guess it had to happen at some point in time. using popol vuh to score the entire movie was a very wise choice and makes me instantly think of barbet schroeder using early pink floyd for his movie, but unlike More this film can actually stand on it's own two feet. even makes me look at malick as a hack for scoring his New World with a similar musical tone. the last part of apocalypse now also owes a lot back to this film as they were setting up an identical theme/tone leading up to the indian camp at the end.

[sam_tem]

since all the internet seems to be talking about Inception today i'll just throw in my two cents:

this movie seems to carry a similar hype-level to shutter island and that movie sucked balls. i found leo to be agonizing throughout shutter island and although very well-acted, he was still a drag on revolutionary road for me. i'm ready to write off his chance of ever being in a quality movie at this point and use him as a barometer for such. the only good he can do for me now is if he helps bring Titanic 2 to reality because that would just have to be such an ultimate hollywood WTF moment that i would totally revel in it.

[jcotteri]

Don't see what all the hype was about Dark Knight..??

[Tyro]

.....................

[PrinceOfCats]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves with Nolan bashing - Memento was a fantastic film.

Fantastic as in strange in form, yes.

[swami]

LOL at the Leo comment, While I hated SHUTTER ISLAND another hyped movie like Dark Night , I recommend watching BODY OF LIES I think he really does a fantastic job. He will definitely mature into being one of the greater actors of our time.

MEMENTO was excellent but I was pleasantly surprised with The PRESTIGE quite an intriguing movie , Was actually hoping that Guy Ritchie's Sherlock would be along those lines but that was such a piece of stinky poo poo

Girl With The Dragon Tatoo was not half bad a little too long but well acted & played , Reminded me of 8MM a little