Match Cut Directors Consensus - Jonathan Demme

[dreamdead]

We're to Week 18 of this year's consensus, which means it's Raiders' boy, Jonathan Demme. See the snazzy pic below. Yummers.

Rules and regulations are here (http://match-cut.org/showthread.php?t=426) for the newbies.

http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/paramount_pictures/the_manchurian_candidate/jonathan_demme/manlapred.jpg

[dreamdead]

Silence of the Lambs - 9
Philadelphia - 5.5 (bonus half-point for the Springsteen song)

[Silencio]

The Silence of the Lambs - 9
Philadelphia - 3

[Ezee E]

Melvin and Howard - 8
Silence of the Lambs - 9.5
Philadelphia - 8.5
The Manchurian Candidate - 8.5

I'll try and see a few more this week.

[Raiders]

Ahem...

Caged Heat (1974) 7.5
Citizens Band (1977) 9.5
Last Embrace (1979) 6.0
Melvin and Howard (1980) 8.5
Swing Shift (1984) 5.5
Stop Making Sense (1984) 9.0
Something Wild (1986) 10.0
Swimming to Cambodia (1987) 6.0
Married to the Mob (1988) 6.5
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 8.0
Philadelphia (1993) 5.0
Storefront Hitchcock (1998) 7.0
Beloved (1998) 9.5
The Truth About Charlie (2002) 9.0
The Agronomist (2003) 9.0
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) 9.0
Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006) 8.5

[soitgoes...]

Melvin and Howard (1980) - 6.5
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - 10
Philadelphia (1993) - 6.5
The Agronomist (2003) - 9.5
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) - 5.5
Jimmy Carter Man from Plains (2007) - 9.0

[soitgoes...]

Ahem...

Caged Heat (1974) 7.5
Citizens Band (1977) 9.5
Last Embrace (1979) 6.0
Melvin and Howard (1980) 8.5
Swing Shift (1984) 5.5
Stop Making Sense (1984) 9.0
Something Wild (1986) 10.0
Swimming to Cambodia (1987) 6.0
Married to the Mob (1988) 6.5
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 8.0
Philadelphia (1993) 5.0
Storefront Hitchcock (1998) 7.0
Beloved (1998) 9.5
The Truth About Charlie (2002) 9.0
The Agronomist (2003) 9.0
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) 9.0
Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006) 8.5
I'm surprised no Jimmy Carter.

[Raiders]

I'm surprised no Jimmy Carter.

Just haven't gotten to it yet. It is a priority, though.

[Mysterious Dude]

The Silence of the Lambs - 9.5
Philadelphia - 6.0
The Manchurian Candidate - 3.5

[Boner M]

Melvin & Howard - 8
Something Wild - 8.5
The Silence of the Lambs - 8.5
Philadephia - 4.5
The Manchurian Candidate - 6
Neil Young: Heart of Gold - 7.5

Christ, I need to see Stop Making Sense already.

[Russ]

Melvin and Howard (1980) 8.0
Stop Making Sense (1984) 8.5
Something Wild (1986) 6.5
Married to the Mob (1988) 7.0
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 9.0
Philadelphia (1993) 6.0
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) 8.0

[Spinal]

Stop Making Sense - 8.5
Swimming to Cambodia - 7.5
Married to the Mob - 6.5
The Silence of the Lambs - 7
Philadelphia - 5

[Stay Puft]

The Silence of the Lambs - 4
Philadelphia - 4

[Sycophant]

The Manchurian Candidate - 6.0

[Yxklyx]

Stop Making Sense - 9
Something Wild - 8
The Silence of the Lambs - 8

[Watashi]

Silence of the Lambs - 6
Philadelphia - 3
The Manchurian Candidate - 8.5

[Bosco B Thug]

Beloved - 7
The Silence of the Lambs - 8

[Hugh_Grant]

Swing Shift / 7
Stop Making Sense / 6
Swimming to Cambodia / 6
The Silence of the Lambs / 6
Philadelphia / 3
Storefront Hitchcock / 9 (helps that I'm a huge Robyn Hitchcock fan...)
The Manchurian Candidate / 5

[Morris Schæffer]

Married to the Mob - 7
The Silence of the Lambs - 10
Philadephia - 6.5
The Manchurian Candidate - 6

[eternity]

Silence of the Lambs- 8.5
Philadelphia- 5
The Manchurian Candidate- 7
Jimmy Carter Man From Plains- 7.5

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'll be seeing Beloved soon, having just finished the book. I'll post my scores afterward.

[Raiders]

I'll be seeing Beloved soon, having just finished the book. I'll post my scores afterward.

Be interesting to see what you think. I love both the film and book, but the film's reputation is rather poor. It is a long film and it doesn't mind taking its time to develop. But its shocking, almost lurid flashbacks, Winfrey's stoic solitude coupled with Newton's brazen shock-performance and the film's wonderful use of the Demme staple of shooting actors head-on make it a powerful film. I don't think it gets enough credit for how it takes the lingering horrors of slavery, over both the old and young, and avoids preaching. The shots peering into the character's eyes are some of the most haunting I have seen.

[Ezee E]

Be interesting to see what you think. I love both the film and book, but the film's reputation is rather poor. It is a long film and it doesn't mind taking its time to develop. But its shocking, almost lurid flashbacks, Winfrey's stoic solitude coupled with Newton's brazen shock-performance and the film's wonderful use of the Demme staple of shooting actors head-on make it a powerful film. I don't think it gets enough credit for how it takes the lingering horrors of slavery, over both the old and young, and avoids preaching. The shots peering into the character's eyes are some of the most haunting I have seen.
Speaking of that technique, I was about to ask which movie of his uses it better then the others. Or perhaps, what scene uses it most effectively?

Granted, I'm behind on his films, but it'd be tough to top the introduction of Hannibal Lecter, as he stares right at us, in the most peculiar of stances. Simply waiting.

[MadMan]

I have actually seen Something Wild and Married to The Mob, but neither one has been viewed in years and thus I can't give proper scores to either one. I do vaguely remember enjoying both films though. So all I can submit is the following:

Silence of the Lambs(1993)-9.5
The Manchurian Candidate(2004)-9.0

[Ezee E]

Speaking of that technique, I was about to ask which movie of his uses it better then the others. Or perhaps, what scene uses it most effectively?

Granted, I'm behind on his films, but it'd be tough to top the introduction of Hannibal Lecter, as he stares right at us, in the most peculiar of stances. Simply waiting.
Edited with Melvin and Howard. I gave it an 8. The preview sure made it out to be a story of a man getting money and his luck changing. How obvious and easy of a story that would be.

Instead, it takes a much different route. Sometimes strange, but never over-the-top. I dug it a lot. Mary Steenburgen was quite the looker back in the day. She seemed to steal each scene she was in. No surprise she won a good amount of awards (including the Oscar) for her role.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Be interesting to see what you think. I love both the film and book, but the film's reputation is rather poor. It is a long film and it doesn't mind taking its time to develop. But its shocking, almost lurid flashbacks, Winfrey's stoic solitude coupled with Newton's brazen shock-performance and the film's wonderful use of the Demme staple of shooting actors head-on make it a powerful film. I don't think it gets enough credit for how it takes the lingering horrors of slavery, over both the old and young, and avoids preaching. The shots peering into the character's eyes are some of the most haunting I have seen.

Cool. I'm looking forward to it. I loved the book, and having finished it last night, my appreciation for it seems to be growing by the hour.

[Pop Trash]

Stop Making Sense 9/10
Something Wild 7/10
The Silence of the Lambs 10/10 (and I don't give that rating out like candy folks)
Neil Young:Heart of Gold 7/10

I've also seen Married to the Mob, Philadelphia, and Beloved but I don't feel confident in my memory of them to accurately rate them.

[Pop Trash]

Be interesting to see what you think. I love both the film and book, but the film's reputation is rather poor. It is a long film and it doesn't mind taking its time to develop. But its shocking, almost lurid flashbacks, Winfrey's stoic solitude coupled with Newton's brazen shock-performance and the film's wonderful use of the Demme staple of shooting actors head-on make it a powerful film. I don't think it gets enough credit for how it takes the lingering horrors of slavery, over both the old and young, and avoids preaching. The shots peering into the character's eyes are some of the most haunting I have seen.
I saw it in the theaters and remember liking it but I do remember at the time Oprah was hyping it up a lot on her show and there seemed to be some schadenfreud when it bombed at the box office. I think the negative reaction had more to do with a "haha take that Oprah" type thing than anything to do with the movie itself. Now Oprah barely mentions it anymore. But lately there seems to be a revisionism towards it since I noticed Slant Magazine basically declared it a masterpiece and one of the best films of the century. Granted, it's only one websites opinion but still...

[Qrazy]

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 7.0
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) 6.0

[Bosco B Thug]

Be interesting to see what you think. I love both the film and book, but the film's reputation is rather poor. It is a long film and it doesn't mind taking its time to develop. But its shocking, almost lurid flashbacks, Winfrey's stoic solitude coupled with Newton's brazen shock-performance and the film's wonderful use of the Demme staple of shooting actors head-on make it a powerful film. I don't think it gets enough credit for how it takes the lingering horrors of slavery, over both the old and young, and avoids preaching. The shots peering into the character's eyes are some of the most haunting I have seen.
Beloved's definitely solid, and it's very powerful at times - mostly due to on-the-note performances, a painstaking faithfulness to every grimey detail of the book, and Demme's often graceful directing (those head-on shots are definitely stunners). I didn't think it was extraordinary, though... I think I found it and its scripting a bit plodding and the story could have been, I dunno, more "sculpted" into something.

[Grouchy]

The Silence of the Lambs - 9

[dreamdead]

KF,

If you want to post your scores below, I'll retabulate the scores to reflect that change. Until that point, I wasn't aware that The Truth about Charlie was so absent from our viewing here...

Results…
Stop Making Sense – 8.5 (7)
The Silence of the Lambs – 8.190 (21)
Something Wild – 8.1667 (6)
Melvin and Howard – 8 (6)
The Manchurian Candidate – 6.8124 (14)
Married to the Mob – 6.75 (4)
Philadelphia – 5.2 (15)
Overall = 7.3755

Did not qualify…
Citizens Band – 9.5 (1)
The Agronomist – 9.25 (2)
The Truth About Charlie – 9 (2)
Jimmy Carter Man from Plains – 8.25 (2)
Storefront Hitchcock – 8 (2)
Beloved – 7.883 (3)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold – 7.667 (3)
Caged Heat – 7.25 (2)
Swimming to Cambodia – 6.5 (3)
Swing Shift – 6.25 (2)
Last Embrace – 6 (1)

Biggest Fan: Raiders
Biggest Hater: Stay Puft
Only person to admit to seeing Caged Heat: Raiders and iosos... coincidence?

[Sven]

I, uh, never got in on this action. Sorries. Here's my ballot, for the record:

Caged Heat - 7
Melvin and Howard - 9
Stop Making Sense - 9.5
Something Wild - 9
The Silence of the Lambs - 6.5
Philadelphia - 6.5
Beloved - 7
The Truth About Charlie - 9
The Manchurian Candidate - 7.5

That would've changed the last award given to Raiders there.

[dreamdead]

That would've changed the last award given to Raiders there.

Okey doke. Adjusted the ratings... you're not a Demme completist, so why the seeing of CH?

Looks like I should see Stop Making Sense and Something Wild, apparently.

[Sven]

Okey doke. Adjusted the ratings... you're not a Demme completist, so why the seeing of CH?

Umm... girls in prison, perhaps?

[Raiders]

Okey doke. Adjusted the ratings... you're not a Demme completist, so why the seeing of CH?

Because it's good.

[Spinal]

Only seven people here have seen Stop Making Sense? :confused:

[Ezee E]

If anyone has Something Wild thoughts, I'd like to hear them.

What can I say though? I think this is when Demme became confident as a director, despite already doing Melvin & Howard which was more of an actor's piece. Here, he uses music to an excellent advantage, and also gives the locations life. There seems to be something else going on in each scene that would make a second viewing fun, whether it is a circle of rappers, or the high school reunion stories.

Melanie Griffith is excellent, especially in the first half, as a strange but mostly charismatic and interesting person. It could've been overdone or gone simply scary or unbelievable, but she manages to hit it right. Jeff Daniels is also to blame as they have great charisma together. And then there's Ray Liotta, excellent as always.

[balmakboor]

Only seven people here have seen Stop Making Sense? :confused:

What's really sad is only six had seen Something Wild and only four had seen Married to the Mob.

[balmakboor]

And then there's Ray Liotta, excellent as always.

Have you ever seen Dominick and Eugene? Check it out if you haven't. I thought it was more honest and likeable than the very similar Rain Man from the same year.

[Spinal]

What's really sad is only six had seen Something Wild and only four had seen Married to the Mob.

I saw Something Wild a long time ago and didn't remember it well enough to vote.

[balmakboor]

I saw Something Wild a long time ago and didn't remember it well enough to vote.

Well, I guess I didn't vote at all. Kinda missed the boat on this one. But, sadly, I've only seen:

Stop Making Sense
Something Wild
Married to the Mob
The Silence of the Lambs
Philadelphia
The Agronomist

I say sadly because I'd rate all of those a B+ or better.

[Ezee E]

Well, I guess I didn't vote at all. Kinda missed the boat on this one. But, sadly, I've only seen:

Stop Making Sense
Something Wild
Married to the Mob
The Silence of the Lambs
Philadelphia
The Agronomist

I say sadly because I'd rate all of those a B+ or better.
Put it in the main consensus thread. It'll get put it later.