Film Swap 2014 Extravaganza!

[Our Aurora]

So to keep it simple... if you want to participate respond to the list. I will then put everyone's name into a hat all official like -- and draw. The pairs will be posted here... So I hope this can be made a sticky. We have had luck and a lot of fun with this in the past. Although, I think it should be a film which your partner has never seen... if they have insightful (positive or negative) ideas to present on a particular film --- I suppose exceptions can be made (read as: I don't give a shit!)

So let's get it on:

Our Aurora
Irish
Dukefrukem
dreamdead
Spinal
Ivan Drago
David Seven
Raiders
Stay Puft
Ezee E
MadMan
Watashi
KF

Also, I should note that truly obscure films should only be included if you are able to supply your partner with a copy. I will close my eyes on how this happens... but just be safe.

I'll wait until sometime next week to give everyone a chance to sign up.



>>>Okay so I waited for the week to end so that all who wanted to participate could. Here are the pairs in no particular order:

Dukefrukem - Ivan Drago
David Seven - Madman
Our Aurora - Irish
Spinal - Ezee E
Watashi - Kurosawa Fan
Stay Puft - Raiders
Dreamdead --- I will take on another. Sorry, didn't realize we were at an odd number. Because you were slighted you may choose your own partner! Choose wisely... these warriors seem to be savvy.

[Irish]

I'm in.

Noob question: I assume you and the partner swap movie titles, watch the respective films, and the post about it. Do participants just suggest only one title? I'm familiar with the people here, more or less, but outside the movie poll posts I have very little idea of what they may or may not have seen. Admittedly, this is sorta a non-problem, so maybe I'm overly focused on the "film your partner has never seen" part of your post.

[Our Aurora]

Ideally you would suggest several titles based on your taste which the person may/may have not seen. It's not very strict. Just a fun way for people to start a dialogue with common films.

[Dukefrukem]

Totally in.

I don't think we've done this since the axis days.

[dreamdead]

I'm totally game. We've done it since the axis days, but it's been at least 3-4 years.

[Spinal]

Yes, please.

[Ivan Drago]

I'm in.

[DavidSeven]

In.

[Raiders]

Bring it.

[Stay Puft]

A blast from the past. I'm in.

[Ezee E]

yup

[MadMan]

I never know what film to choose when doing these things. But yes I'm in.

[Watashi]

Yeah. Sure.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm in. I'm writing the review I owe meg tomorrow, so I'll feel better about participating.

[Our Aurora]

Bump... Didn't realize an edit would not show up as a change in the thread. PM your partners as many choices as you feel are necessary.

Can't wait... should be fun.

[Watashi]

Poor dreamdead was the odd man out.

[MadMan]

DavidSeven....hmm....no fucking idea what movies he HASN'T seen yet.

[Spinal]

If I remember correctly, we announce our movie pairings once we have them established, right?

Ezee E will watch California Dreamin'
Spinal will watch Game 6

[Dukefrukem]

Ivan, here (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?4951-Wrong-(Quentin-Dupieux)&highlight=Wrong) is your movie.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Wats will be watching Woman in the Dunes.

I will be watching Trust (1990).

[Raiders]

Raiders will be watching My Friend Ivan Lapshin
Stay Puft will be watching Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

[Ezee E]

I'll be watching mine after I return from Telluride.

[Ivan Drago]

Ivan, here (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?4951-Wrong-(Quentin-Dupieux)&highlight=Wrong) is your movie.

Interesting pick....I'll send your movie in a PM.

[Ivan Drago]

I, Ivan Drago Esq., will be watching Wrong
The Duke of Frukem will be watching Cheap Thrills

[Gittes]

The Duke of Frukem

This is a great revision.

[Thirdmango]

If dreamdead hasn't already watched his I can be his partner.

I just found this thread a little late. ;)

I'll wait for a confirmation before I proceed.

[Dukefrukem]

This is a great revision.

If you logout of MC, do you need to type in your username perfectly with the spaces and hyphens?

[Gittes]

Initially, yes, but then I saved it as a selection in the login drop-down list. I haven't given much thought to a new username.

[Our Aurora]

If dreamdead hasn't already watched his I can be his partner.

I just found this thread a little late. ;)

I'll wait for a confirmation before I proceed.

Works for me.

Also:

Our Aurora will be watching: The Ipcress File
Irish will be watching: Juliet of the Spirits

Enjoy your viewings everyone... Looking forward to reading all thoughts.

[MadMan]

Okay DavidSeven bearing changing his mind will be watching Youth of the Beast (1963). His pick for me was Bad Lieutenant (1992 version w/ Harvey Keitel).

[Thirdmango]

Thirdmango - My Night at Maud's
Dreamdead - Jean De Florette

[dreamdead]

http://www.themoviejerk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/G_rard_Depardieu_i__152894a.jp g
“I’m here to cultivate the authentic.”

So says Jean (Gerard Depardieu) in Claude Berri’s Jean de Florette (1986). It is a statement that exists both for Jean’s moral character and about the film itself, which is sensuous and focused on the sublimity of nature but which also records the unflinching brutality and hardships inflicted upon betrayed farmers.

Berri smartly shifts between narrative perspectives after a short opening with the loathsome Ugolin and Cesar, who yearn to take ownership of a neighbor’s land so that Ugolin can expand an entrepreneur carnation farm. In doing so, Berri secures narrative identification with both their judgmental perspective and the genuine and noble Jean, a former tax collector who seeks to though he never recognizes the everyday villainy with which Ugolin operates (though always guided by the more intentionally wicked Cesar). The film is practically scandalous for how fully it situates its narrative perspective in the beginning with Ugolin and Cesar. When Cesar struggles in a fight with the old neighbor, the neighbour is cast down on a rock and the blunt force kills the neighbor. There is no real sympathy generated in this moment but merely disgust over a verbal insult that the neighbor spewed (and which started the fight). They then block the neighbor’s spring with cement, secure in their machinations and in the small-town temperament that scorns outsiders even more so than it scorns treachery from those they know.

Berri stages this and successive events so dispassionately that the film builds in its protracted empathy. The great release (and even this is filmed in a super wide shot by Berri) is when Jean rages at God for refusing to place rain on his land and its dying crops. The depth of the bitterness that Depardieu achieves is key, and the rest of his family underplay their desperation. Yet it’s significant that only Jean’s daughter suspects Ugolin of villainy, and Jean and his wife chastise her for her judgment. Yet even Ugolin secures empathy by the sheer pain of denying Jean aid when Jean is the first true friend that he has—Daniel Auteuil’s delivery of how his “eyes are crying” is understated yet it too is haunting.

Methodical in its structure, Berri achieves much by staging the seasonal changes so slowly. A more contemporary version of this film would deteriorate to a quick montage to get at the idea of Jean’s dwindling confidence and fortune, but there’s real pathos in holding and sustaining the misfortune. The film’s sense of earthiness and lived-in simplicity, where the planting of vegetables has an almost uncanny beauty to it, carries with it a palpable pain when calamity strikes. The film’s ending, with Cesar materially baptizing Ugolin, and Jean’s daughter discovering the truth, is a final bitter pill to swallow.

All in all, this is a film that I’d only heard about fleetingly. It’s one of the best I’ve seen all year, full of heartbreak and petty jealousy and the desire to reach out and comfort, but fully aware of why we as a society choose self-investment rather than a real community.

[Dukefrukem]

Wow completely forgot about this. I know what I'm doing this weekend.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I have acquired Wats's selection. Hopefully I'll have time this weekend to watch it. Although I have to drive down to the worst state in the country for my son's soccer tournament, so it might have to wait until next week.

[dreamdead]

I have acquired Wats's selection. Hopefully I'll have time this weekend to watch it. Although I have to drive down to the worst state in the country for my son's soccer tournament, so it might have to wait until next week.

So, I totally need to understand what the worst state in the country is, and why that opinion is held...

[Kurosawa Fan]

So, I totally need to understand what the worst state in the country is, and why that opinion is held...

That would be Ohio. Because I am from Michigan.

[dreamdead]

Fair enough.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OsLks4LTBzE/UKpiHGUlU0I/AAAAAAAAAFw/IYcGdMO9TTQ/s1600/Without+Sports+-+osu-michigan.jpg

[Kurosawa Fan]

Exactly.

[MadMan]

I'm assuming we are posting our reviews in this thread? I watched DavidSeven's choice for me earlier this month and took a bit too long to process and review. But here it is:

Bad Lieutenant (1992, Abel Ferrera)

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/49/37/b8/4937b8ed251948af207297d7270933 46.jpg

When a movie opens with a man dropping off his kids to school and getting high afterwards that movie certainly gets your attention. Bad Lieutenant is an engaging and gritty film, one that adds to the list of New York movies that identify with the city and some of its people. Abel Ferrera has a legacy of making such movies, although I currently have only seen Bad Lieutenant and The Driller Killer, which I happen to own. Bad Lieutenant displays the corruption and the lies that populate the life of Harvey Keitel's police officer, who remains nameless throughout the film and thus in a way becomes connected with Keitel himself, who's career has taken him from Mean Streets to Reservoir Dogs. This film is one of his towering achievements, as he delivers a stark and emotionally charged performance where he gives everything into the role and literally becomes this man who is in desperate need of redemption.

One of the best moments in this film is when Keitel ventures into a dark and neon lit nightclub to meet with his bookie and also to engage in his usual brand of debauchery. The lieutenant's vices included women, drugs, booze, extreme sports gambling (which is the primary source of his problems) and also stealing, as he rips off two kids guilty of robing a liquor store. All throughout this film the officer behaves not only as if he is above the law, but also unconcerned with people who may try to kill him over his debts, which are many. Yet he may not be completely beyond saving, even though his family seems to have given up such hope, and his fellow officers seem to only care about his sports betting tips, as he doesn't seem to attempt to solve any crimes that he is supposed to be investigating.

When a nun is raped violently the officer's whole world changes during his part in the investigation, leading up to a pathetic and sad moment of faith and conscience in a church, of course. Ferrera is obsessed with faith in this movie, using the Catholic faith to mediate upon the sins of this man, a person who violates the commandments however cries out to God like any poor bastard sinner: when he needs help the most. The ending in some ways makes it clear that he sought redemption and accepted grace, although whether or not he was truly saved remains a tad unclear. However this is a powerful film, a marvelous piece of low budget 90s filmmaking that sadly does not exist anymore. The scene has changed, and so has cop movies, although ones such as Bad Lieutenant forever stand out and are still noticed.

[Dukefrukem]

Crap I forgot about this, we should have done a deadline.

[Our Aurora]

Eh... not really into deadlines... figured people would watch and write as their personal time allowed. Seems Irish is gone though. So not sure what to do about that.

[MadMan]

I seem to remember Irish leaving before, only to come back. Hopefully this is the case again, although I'm not sure.

[TGM]

Irish is still around, just not posting right now. He voted in the Dracula Untold thread the other day.

[Spinal]

I watched mine tonight.

[Spinal]

http://s27.postimg.org/mygvshzar/Game_6_Michael_Keaton_3.jpg

Game 6 (Hoffman, 2005)

Michael Keaton plays Nicky Rogan, a former cab driver who is both a playwright and a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. He's got a play about to premiere. He's got a marriage that's falling apart. He's having an affair. He's got a strained relationship with his daughter. And his favorite team is on the verge of winning the World Series. If Game 6 didn't connect with movie goers on its initial release, perhaps it's because the jumble of themes make it difficult to exactly pinpoint what the film is. It's not really a sports film. It's not really film about creating art. And it's not really a film about lost love. Don DeLillo's script is more specific than that. Truth be told, Game 6 is about the expectation of failure.

DeLillo uses the sports world and the arts world as dual metaphors for a life on the verge of crumbling. As a Red Sox fan, Rogan knows better than to allow himself to expect a Red Sox victory. Even with all-time great, Roger Clemens, taking the mound, Rogan knows that it's not a question of whether or not the Red Sox will lose, it's just a matter of how. The opening of his new play is the set-up for another potentially soul crushing event, as the shadow of notorious theatre critic, Steven Schwimmer (Robert Downey Jr.) looms over the premiere, known for his devastating take-downs in print. Again, Rogan anticipates disaster, wondering only about the manner in which the pain will be served.

Although it's tempting for someone like Nicky to blame external forces for his downward trajectory, it's fair to ask at what point a man's attitude and self-loathing seal his own fate. A professional at adapting his personal history for the stage, Nicky has far less awareness about the way in which he writing his own story in daily life.

While the film relies on archival footage to generate most of its drama, Keaton holds the film together for the most part with charisma and a deft approach to the film's overriding melancholy. Downey's character and plot line are less convincing. As the story goes, he plays a critic so harsh that he has to attend plays in disguise. Apparently this means donning an absurd wig that seems like it would only serve to draw attention rather than reflect it. And while the two characters eventually face off with Rogan in a heightened emotional state and Schwimmer curiously vulnerable, the film ends, not with fireworks, but with DeLillo's biggest departure from plausibility.

I wasn't smitten with Game 6. But I'm glad I saw it. It fills in a gap in Keaton's post-Jack Frost filmography where, for so long, it felt like he had disappeared after years of being a dependable leading man. Keaton occupies an unusual place in film history, not often considered at yearly award ceremonies and yet, almost universally thought of with fondness and respect, a man who could make a second-rate comedy like Gung Ho or Multiplicty entirely watchable. Game 6 is a reminder of Keaton's uncommon charm and his ability to elevate a role beyond expectation.

[Winston*]

I remember enjoying it well enough but thinking DeLillo's script really needed a more dynamic director than Michael Hoffman.

Then again, David Cronenberg is a more dynamic director and his DeLillo film is worse so who knows.

[dreamdead]

Things that are brought to mind whenever I think about Game 6:

--Bebe Neuwirth is incredibly attractive in this film--that opening scene with her;
--Did I ever finish this film?
--DeLillo dialogue needs precision to either render it natural or a spectacular director to highlight how unnatural it is--Cronenberg had the ability to get parts of Cosmopolis's tone right, but that film's third act is still incredibly silly;
--I wonder if his plays capture the wonder of his thinking or embrace his esoteric qualities too heavily?
--Did I ever finish this film?