The cinema thread

[gregor]

never been a massive fan of war films, though i suppose ida is about a little more than mere war. can't say it was the best movie of the year, but elegiac and quite stirring nonetheless. characters are really well done in the film; certainly a strong point, and worth the watch, even though, as mentioned above, it's quite a short film

wouldn't make my top 3 of the year, but would definitely make top 10. it's a cool juxtaposition of themes well carried by actors and director alike

[Faust]

I forgot when I had a year with top 3.

[gregor]

not sure i've ever had a hollywood-top 3; it's a pretty dreck cinematic culture for the most part

if you're looking for good, underrated and more obscure films (a lot of them somewhat similar to ida), look into more hungarian movies. from turin horse (probably the most sz movie ever) to a kind of america and the round up, it's one of the richest and truest cinemas out there. i tout them due to a tad of bias, but most of them worth the watch regardless

[Faust]

Oh, it was more of a testament of my inability to process serious cinema. ADD galore. At least I can still read...

[finite-]

i watched ida too and it was boring af. overplayed indie quiet scenes, usual timid experimental foreign movie, etc i was asleep by the end of it. the girl was cute tho

[kamsky]

I'd be interested in hearing what anyone has to say with regards to "Mr Turner".

Not at all familiar with the rest of Mike Leigh's films (& I've only a neophytic understanding of Turner's place in art history), but I very much liked the way that this movie is structured. Though there is a definite narrative, it's not so much an arc; rather, the film presents a series of very strong, short renderings -- vignettes of sorts. They don't necessarily cohere in the most logical manner, but taken as a whole, they make for film that is cogent in its thematic concerns. Further, though it's not clear to me to what extent Leigh took creative liberties in his portrayal of the painter, he's not at all hagiographic, and Timothy Spall's acting was quite amazing.

i watched ida too and it was boring af. overplayed indie quiet scenes, usual timid experimental foreign movie, etc i was asleep by the end of it. the girl was cute tho

Not like I just wrote a Deleuzian dissertation on the medium, but you might try a little harder in your contributions.

[bukka]

Not like I just wrote a Deleuzian dissertation on the medium, but you might try a little harder in your contributions.

The girl was cute tho

[qcqc]

Peter Bradshaw’s top 50 films of the demi-decade

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/05/top-50-films-of-the-demi-decade-peter-bradshaw?CMP=fb_gu

ofc no one will agree with many films on this list, but it has nice gems on it

[GucciAmen]

Been on an Ingmar Bergman kick as of late. Fantastic swedish director, his works are always a pleasure to watch in my opinion. I watched countless films of his over the winter break, but I have to say that "Through a Glass Darkly" and "Winter Light" are my favourites thus far. I would highly recommend him to anyone on SZ. Saw two Polanski films as well, Repulsion and The Pianist, the former is great for anyone into psychology, and the latter, for anyone with a passion for classical music and history.

[Shucks]

Not like I just wrote a Deleuzian dissertation on the medium, but you might try a little harder in your contributions.

guy's a troll. won't be around much longer.

[GucciAmen]

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015...shaw?CMP=fb_gu

ofc no one will agree with many films on this list, but it has nice gems on it

Just went through this list, reminded me that I saw Boyhood. Great film, I think the director did an exceptional job of portraying the typical life of a child as he/she grows up (well perhaps one who was more down on his/her luck). The method of filming it over one actor's actual "boyhood" was such an original idea, one of the main reasons I actually saw the film actually. Sadly, I don't think it will be seminal in the production of future films... But, I think it would have an effect on anyone who is of the same age as the boy at the end of the film, really makes one look back on one's life and think if he/she lived a typical childhood (missed out perhaps).

[qcqc]

My first Nuri Bilge Ceylan film. Why have I waited so much?

[gregor]

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015...shaw?CMP=fb_gu

ofc no one will agree with many films on this list, but it has nice gems on it

it's somewhat of a split for me, on one end there are a lot of good and decent films on here, but in all cinemas of these past 5 years, very few of the films mentioned stand out to me in the greater pantheon of cinema

[Jtothewhat]

it's somewhat of a split for me, on one end there are a lot of good and decent films on here, but in all cinemas of these past 5 years, very few of the films mentioned stand out to me in the greater pantheon of cinema

About sums it up for me.. I definitely find myself forced to venture out to foreign language films more than in the past when looking for something new and interesting to watch, whether this is because my own tastes have evolved or domestic (North American) cinema has stagnated I don't know for certain, likely a bit of both.

That being said there were a few films that I really enjoyed this year, some of which came from bigger studio's (Grand Budapest Hotel, Theory of Everything) so I do have hope that this infatuation film studio's have with 4 hour sci-fi epics with no story to speak of will eventually die off (especially with more and more of them bombing) and we will start to see more money invested into emerging directors with unique stories to tell and films that cost much less to finance. This shift has been happening in some international markets, and with how media consumption is changing I could see it making a push in North America as well..though I'm an industry outsider and am basing this off of nothing more than my own anecdotal evidence, so the opposite could be true.

On a sidenote, I just downloaded (can I say that here? ) Birdman and am super excited to watch it given what everyone here has said about it.

I also just finished re-watching Ruby Sparks as I had seen it quite a while ago and my girlfriend wanted to watch it with me. I enjoyed it much more my second time which I rarely say about movies, if anyone hasn't seen it I highly recommend it. I might have found it more enjoyable than the average person simply because it seemed quite relevant to some idea's I have been toiling with in regards to myself and how I like to control seemingly meaningless details and traits of people close to me (like my girlfriend), and how a lot of that rather shallow nitpicking is probably a reflection of my own insecurities. Additionally, since dwelling on this subject and re-watching Ruby Sparks, this behaviour has become more apparent around me. Besides all of that, it's just an enjoyable film and Paul Dano is (in my opinion) a strong actor that needs to get more good roles.

[gregor]

About sums it up for me.. I definitely find myself forced to venture out to foreign language films more than in the past when looking for something new and interesting to watch, whether this is because my own tastes have evolved or domestic (North American) cinema has stagnated I don't know for certain, likely a bit of both.

That being said there were a few films that I really enjoyed this year, some of which came from bigger studio's (Grand Budapest Hotel, Theory of Everything) so I do have hope that this infatuation film studio's have with 4 hour sci-fi epics with no story to speak of will eventually die off (especially with more and more of them bombing) and we will start to see more money invested into emerging directors with unique stories to tell and films that cost much less to finance. This shift has been happening in some international markets, and with how media consumption is changing I could see it making a push in North America as well..though I'm an industry outsider and am basing this off of nothing more than my own anecdotal evidence, so the opposite could be true.

On a sidenote, I just downloaded (can I say that here? ) Birdman and am super excited to watch it given what everyone here has said about it.

I also just finished re-watching Ruby Sparks as I had seen it quite a while ago and my girlfriend wanted to watch it with me. I enjoyed it much more my second time which I rarely say about movies, if anyone hasn't seen it I highly recommend it. I might have found it more enjoyable than the average person simply because it seemed quite relevant to some idea's I have been toiling with in regards to myself and how I like to control seemingly meaningless details and traits of people close to me (like my girlfriend), and how a lot of that rather shallow nitpicking is probably a reflection of my own insecurities. Additionally, since dwelling on this subject and re-watching Ruby Sparks, this behaviour has become more apparent around me. Besides all of that, it's just an enjoyable film and Paul Dano is (in my opinion) a strong actor that needs to get more good roles.

i think it's somewhat of a double edged sword. on one hand, it introduces such great cinema to me based on an almost necessity considering how terrible hollywood has become. it's probably a bit of both on your part, though evolution, forced or otherwise is a good thing in terms of taste.

haven't seen theory of everything, but grand budapest hotel, while not my favourite WA movie, was really well done, and definitely a highlight of the year. i also have to say i really enjoyed the movie comet; cinematography was quite well done, and though the story wasn't perhaps the most original, it was a compelling zeitgeist of non-chronological vignettes of a relationship i think a lot of people have had.

i also hope for that, after the runaway success of avatar (godawful movie ) i think that spurred a lot of copycats, which was a surprising catalyst, though obviously, and increasingly in north american movies, money reigns supreme, and, as is known, avatar made a lotttt of that.

you can say downloaded (but don't say torrented hahah), but i haven't looked much into birdman. i've kind of stopped listening to a lot of recommendations; which is to my detriment as much as it is to my advantage.

not sure that i should directly take it as that, but i may have to look into it if it was genuinely that good. i think that's the case of many of the movies produced now that fly under the radar; they just don't have the critical appeal, in spite of the genius behind them, but as you said earlier, a shift towards true indie (or rather, independent, indie has a lot of connotations) films would be beneficial for those who truly care for a story.

as for movies lately, i've been on a bit of a bela tarr kick, so i'd have to recommend "a man from london", which to me perfectly epitomizes not just hungarian, but so much central european filmmaking of a similar vein; in the use of a odd or seemingly insignificant idea for a beautiful and artful piece of cinema, which, though somewhat pervasive, seems to be particularly telling in tarr's work