I'll be playing catch up. Next for me is week 23. A Comedy.
Choosing between:
The Cremator
My Man Godfrey
The Last Days of Disco
I'm leaning The Cremator.
Printable View
I'll be playing catch up. Next for me is week 23. A Comedy.
Choosing between:
The Cremator
My Man Godfrey
The Last Days of Disco
I'm leaning The Cremator.
Lean away.Quote:
Originally Posted by Idioteque Stalker
Haven't seen Cremator. My Man Godfrey is great-- if you're in the mood for a 30s romantic comedy it certainly delivers the goods. The Last Days of Disco I loved, but I'm a big Stillman fan. If you like his other stuff, this one strays just enough from his formula to make a distinct impression. Of course, script is hilarious (if you like his brand of humor) and the cast is mostly great. Having said that, I haven't watched either in over 15 years. I will be looking forward to your thoughts no matter which way you go.Quote:
Originally Posted by Idioteque Stalker
I don't recall The Cremator being funny at all. The Last Days of Disco is very thin. My Man Godfrey is a classic that I love!
The only other Stillman I've seen is Metropolitan, which I didn't like mainly due to a weak ensemble imo. I'm into his writing, however, and the cast seems much improved in Disco with Chloe Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, and (the far-and-away bright spot from Metropolitan) Chris Eigeman.Quote:
Originally Posted by quido8_5
Heh, yeah Criterion has it listed on "comedy" along with plenty of other questionable choices. I'm choosing between Disco and Godfrey at this point, we'll see where the mood takes me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yxklyx
Thin?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yxklyx
I love all four of Stillman's other movies, but remember almost nothing about TLDoD.
He's saying the movie's new workout routine is paying off.Quote:
Originally Posted by quido8_5
23. Comedy -- My Man Godfrey has the look, cast, and script of a classic romantic comedy (some consider it screwball but I'm not so sure). I had a good/not-life-changing time throughout (Prime recommended His Girl Friday as a follow-up, as if...), and was eagerly anticipating the moment when Godfrey becomes a complex character -- a moment that never came. There's probably some incendiary class commentary in there somewhere for people who lived during the Great Depression, but all I could see in the end was a well-behaved ubermensch who solves society's problems with his omniscient stock market superpowers while also managing to teach everyone their own unique and valuable life-lesson. I guess the marriage-rape finale was supposed to be cute, but it's actually every man's worst nightmare. Anyway, a good movie marred by a tidy, pollyannaish final act. My struggle with 30s movies continues. Three stars.
Next up for me is week 24. Anything on the Criterion Channel. Choosing between:
Le Trou
La Ceremonie
Spirits of the Dead
The Big City
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm
Le Trou has been on my watchlist the longest, so it's probably time. But Symbiopsychotaxiplasm sure is intriguing. Leaning towards one of those.
Yeah, Le Trou or The Big City though I've not seen any of Symbiopsychotaxiplasm docs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Idioteque Stalker
The Last Days of Disco - thin, light, spare, slight. Metropolitan is my favorite Stillman.
I'll go Le Trou then. I'm not pumped I'll be honest. A 2+ hour prison escape movie doesn't excite me, but by all accounts it's great and sometime one must eat one's vegetables.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yxklyx
24. Something on the Criterion Channel -- Le Trou was on my watchlist because of its ridonculous scores on LB, and I can see why it is well-loved across the board. Expertly crafted, with good characters, some nice camera tricks, and a doozy of an ending. Would it ever end up on someone's all-time favorite list, though? Prison escape movies are just so damn... procedural -- and to its credit I suppose Le Trou leans into this full bore, with more hammering and scraping (dear lord, the scraping!) than any one movie ought to have. Had I seen it 10-15 years ago, the craft alone would've elevated it into some transcendent cinematic echelon. At this point, however, I am content admitting it inhabits a genre in which I hold little interest, and it'll take more than exemplary filmmaking to overcome my bias. Three stars.
EDIT: Next up, Scorsese's Top 10. Not a lot to choose from. Going Ashes and Diamonds.
I still don't understand the light, slight criticism of TLDoD. Part of what makes Stillman great is that his films encompass the unbearable lightness of being that his characters exist within. Metropolitan captures this the best, but I think all his subsequent films explore this in a different way-- The Last Days of Disco in a particular way that seems more accessible, but no less weighty.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yxklyx
Week 41 Completed
Film Noir - 1947's Nightmare Alley
25. Something from Scorsese's top 10 -- Ashes and Diamonds. Took me minute to get my bearings, but once the characters came into focus I couldn't help but rejoice in how their inner conflicts were reflected in the increasingly expressionistic camerawork and lighting. The final act in particular is a tour de force. You'll hear no qualms from me regarding its status as an arthouse classic. Four stars.
Next up is a movie from Antonioni, then Fellini. Going La Notte and I Vitelloni. I WILL finish this challenge by the end of the year.
26. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni -- La Notte. Watching beautiful people be sad is not my favorite pastime. As much as I admire Antonioni's "trilogy on modernity and its discontents" for the superlative filmmaking and the prescience of its themes, it's been diminishing returns for me since L'Avventura. I've been plenty uncomfortable/bored at parties, and find little pleasure in having others' discomfort/boredom thrust upon me. The early scenes of Jeanne Moreau wandering sadly through the streets of Milan were fascinating on a structural level but empty emotionally -- and before anyone says "that's the point" ... just don't. I sound more negative on this than I really was. Antonioni is a master, deserving of the utmost respect, but at this point I'm tired of jumping through the intellectual hoops required to love his movies. MVP: Monica Vitti's face. Three stars.
27. Directed by Federico Fellini -- I Vitelloni. It's fun (to a degree) seeing Fellini operate in a mode somewhat adjacent to Hollywood filmmaking, in which his more gonzo tendencies merely poke through rather than rip the screen apart and parade into your living room. Despite the movie's strengths, however, I'll take the hit-or-miss episodes of Amarcord, Satyricon, and Roma over this brand of "boys will be boys" nostalgia. MVP: Nino Rota's score. Three stars.
EDIT: Next up: something from the Merchant Ivory Collection. I have no bearings here, so I'll go with the most popular James Ivory movie, Maurice -- unless anyone has a different recommendation.
A Room with a View or The Remains of the Day - love both of those. I've not seen Maurice but I will this weekend. I don't recall much of anything regarding Howards End.Quote:
Originally Posted by Idioteque Stalker
I loved Remains of a Day when I was a teenager but then I've never read the book. I was bored by both A Room with a View and Howards End, probably in large part because I read the books before seeing the movies. (Apparently I'm the only one who thinks Daniel Day-Lewis gives a terrible performance in the former, but then I'm measuring him against the book where his character is less of a complete twit.) I was also bored by Shakespeare Wallah.
Excellent. FWIW, I used this list to choose from and, in an effort to follow the challenge to the letter of the law, only considered titles with "The Merchant Ivory Collection" printed on the cover. That disqualified both A Room with a View and Howards End, which received standard Criterion releases, and The Remains of the Day, which for whatever reason never got a criterion release.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yxklyx
I stayed up late last night and swooned over the first half of Maurice. I'm embarrassed to say the only experience I've had with James Ivory up to this point has been Call Me By Your Name. Fascinating guy. The next challenge is "Oscar winners," so I think I'll take that opportunity to watch A Room with a View.
28. The Merchant Ivory Collection -- Maurice. I've watched this nearly 2.5 hr movie twice over the past few days trying to figure out why I am so blown away by it. Part of it must be I wasn't expecting much directorially from James Ivory, who I am basically new to and assumed was more renowned for his writing than his filmcraft, but was nevertheless drawn in immediately by the lighting (particularly how the actors are often shadowed -- dare I say chiaroscuro?) and the infrequent but highly impactful use of music, most notably choral and organ pieces which usher this story of romantic heartbreak and triumph toward the sublime. If there's a part of you that swoons over a certain type of British architecture (a mossy country manor, a croaking boathouse, the spires of Cambridge), the gorgeous establishing shots alone will make it worth your time. The editing has an odd rhythm to it, in which some scenes are far shorter than one might expect considering the lavishness on display (as with something like The Age of Innocence, the movie looks appropriately expensive); as a result, I felt compelled at points to uncover the "purpose" of certain scenes and, without fail, the morsel of subtext I discovered was delicious. Whereas the relationship in the Ivory-penned Call Me By Your Name oftentimes centered around a coyness typified by hidden messages and guessing games, the characters in Maurice are far more direct, pronouncing in clear language their fears and desires before struggling in the aftermath. I can imagine the midway narrative turn might turn some people off ("Wait, that's not what's supposed to happen!"), but despite its twists the film stays true to its leads' psychological journeys -- and at the end of it all, shouldn't their desires be prioritized above ours?
I loved it. One of the best movies I've seen this year, and totally unexpected. Five stars.
Curious to hear thoughts from Yxklyx, who rated it "only" three stars.
EDIT: Next up: Oscar winner. A Room with a View, clearly.
EDIT 2: Ivory making me swoon again. 1/3 into it and the leads are kinda awkward, but who cares when really all a movie needs is beautiful people walking through tall grass and sharing a kiss set to history's best music. []
29. Oscar winners -- A Room with a View. At this moment I could live in this Merchant Ivory world forever. Visually and musically just as strong as Maurice. The kiss among the barley with Puccini in the background is an instant all-timer scene. It may be simple to let such a romantic notion grab hold but, as Lord Risley from Maurice said, "Otherwise the mountains will overshadow us." Every character (except DDL's, who was despicable from the get-go) could've been fleshed out properly with a longer running time, or maybe I just wanted the whole thing to last longer. A bit lighter than Maurice (it's a comedy first and drama second, rather than the vice-versa), but just as aching, lush, and ultimately triumphant. The Remains of the Day watchlisted. Four stars.
Next up: Black and white. Options are:
Kiss Me Deadly
The Big City
Kuroneko
Streetwise
Alice in the Cities
I'm excited for all of them, but it is October after all so I'm leaning Kuroneko...
Haven't seen Streetwise from those. I would rank the rest as: Kiss Me Deadly > The Big City > Alice in the Cities > Kuroneko. But even the last one is good and it is indeed an apt October watch.
Kiss Me Deadly > Alice in the Cities > The Big City > Kuroneko
I don't remember anything about the last one. Just re-watched KMD the other night!
Have not seen Streetwise but I think I will tonight after scoping it out.