28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Ezee E]

Yeah, The Piano is pretty great. Don't see what's lol-worthy about that scene at all either.

[Qrazy]

Yeah, The Piano is pretty great. Don't see what's lol-worthy about that scene at all either.

Ok, next time we go out for dinner I'll squirt some ketchup on your blouse and we'll see if you chuckle or not.

[Ezee E]

Ok, next time we go out for dinner I'll squirt some ketchup on your blouse and we'll see if you chuckle or not.

We discussed this. On our dates, you wear the blouse.

[Mysterious Dude]

Speaking of cool-looking covers, the Insomnia Blu-ray cover is quite Criterionesque.

A Google search led me to discover that the cover adopts the style of Pointillism. Please do show me five covers that do the same thing and then I'll understand your point.

Pointillism? I'm pretty sure they just used the "film grain" filter in Photoshop, and I don't think I've ever seen that particular filter used more lazily.

I like this better:

[Spinal]

I recommend Queen Margot and Camille Claudel for the Adjani lovers. She is indeed amazing. Top 5 all-time film actress in my opinion.

[Spinal]

Kind of let down a little by Blue Beard. Seemed pretty slight compared to her other films. Hopefully, it'll settle well as I let the pieces fall into place, but I was kind of left thinking, "Is that all?"

[B-side]

Kind of let down a little by Blue Beard. Seemed pretty slight compared to her other films. Hopefully, it'll settle well as I let the pieces fall into place, but I was kind of left thinking, "Is that all?"

It's definitely not her best, but I enjoyed the feminist twist.

[Ezee E]

Curious why The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo got mostly good reviews. I think it's one of the worst of the year. Spinal is right in its "pageyness." It basically follows the already mediocre book word-for-word, but basically cuts out anything that could really be suspenseful. The big scenes with Lisbeth are so quick that you never really get a good feeling of her, and that was something I was hoping the movie could do well in.

I hope Fincher does something else, or drastically changes the script for this. Otherwise, he's wasting his talent.

[Sven]

Ok, next time we go out for dinner I'll squirt some ketchup on your blouse and we'll see if you chuckle or not.

I love how you seem to want to be taken seriously sometimes.

[Sven]

Wayne's World worked for me again, even after seeing it for the umpteenth time. I'd never watched it with alcohol in me before though, so that could explain it.

[Qrazy]

I love how you seem to want to be taken seriously sometimes.

Is there supposed to be some meaning in this sentence?

[Derek]

Is there supposed to be some meaning in this sentence?

Subtext: You're a silly man sometimes and you complain about minor issues when hating on great films.

Sub-subtext: Update your friggin' signature or have the decency to simply not have one!

[MacGuffin]

I dunno, I think I have to side with Qrazy here. If I saw a drama about a mute woman that featured a scene where Anna Paquin gets squirted on with ketchup I'd lose my shit too.

[Sven]

I don't know if I'd call The Piano "great," though I definitely like a lot about it. But yeah, complaining about a visually strange moment in a visually strange film is... I dunno. Weird, I guess.

[Qrazy]

Subtext: You're a silly man sometimes and you complain about minor issues when hating on great films.

Sub-subtext: Update your friggin' signature or have the decency to simply not have one!

So I want to be taken seriously because I made a joke? Right...

On a more serious note though that scene in The Piano is not a minor issue. It's the emotional center of the film and it's absolutely ridiculous (a big part of this is the blood splatter but also the way it's cut in general). Although granted it's ridiculousness is later upstaged by a woman nearly being drowned by her own piano. Talk about an unharmonious relationship.

[Sven]

Quote from an article that a friend linked to:

Though liberals only make up 20% of the population, they’re still able to pull off [convincing the world that a belief in a moral code is what’s abnormal because all the cool kids are into a collective degeneracy] because conservatives took their eye off the ball and allowed the Left to infest the institutions in charge of documenting and portraying who we are as a society. Unfortunately, these socialist engineers aren’t stupid and figured out almost immediately that with a near-monopoly on sound and image they could make a majority of the population feel like the minority; with the goal in mind of using peer pressure to shape our culture into a godless orgy of anything goes hyper-sexuality.

Hmmm...

[Spinal]

That scene in The Piano is utterly gut-wrenching when watched in context. Even in a poor quality Youtube video, there is much to admire ... Hunter's reaction, the signature music, that perfect billow of the dress as she falls to the ground. Nothing less than one of the great moments in film.

[Derek]

I don't know if I'd call The Piano "great," though I definitely like a lot about it. But yeah, complaining about a visually strange moment in a visually strange film is... I dunno. Weird, I guess.

I wouldn't call it "great" per se either, but I'm with you on the weird complaint.

So I want to be taken seriously because I made a joke? Right...

Well, Sven probably should've quoted from earlier on, but the harping on a minor issue with one shot and then calling a film a piece of shit is kinda lol-worthy in itself.

On a more serious note though that scene in The Piano is not a minor issue. It's the emotional center of the film and it's absolutely ridiculous (a big part of this is the blood splatter but also the way it's cut in general).

I should clarify; it is a minor or non-issue to essentially everyone who has seen The Piano and is not Qrazy. Within the context of the film, it fits fine.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Cyrus was like a war, with convincing, real performances vying against the awful rack-zooms and find-the-subject cinematography of the Duplass brothers. John C. Reilly puts in fine work, Marisa Tomei is believable in a damn near impossible role, and Jonah Hill plays some emotions I didn't ever expect to see from him. But the faux-documentary style of people shaking the camera and ostensibly capturing some sort of ephemeral "reality" of the moment goes against the nature of the tight, controlled narrative. The film's worth a viewing, but probably only one viewing.

B-

[B-side]

Buffalo '66 was pretty great. Loved the color palette. Loved the playful staccato editing. Loved the picture-in-picture flashbacks. Loved the camera work. The emotional catharsis was pitch-perfect, and felt like it came at exactly the right time. Reminded me of Godard at times.

[Spinal]

... a godless orgy of anything goes hyper-sexuality ...

I want to live in the world of this guy's paranoia.

[Boner M]

I really dug Cyrus, mostly cos of the performances. The intro of Hill's character where he's playing the synth composition is one of the funniest scenes I've seen in a while.

Don't recall being bothered by the camerawork, except at the beginning.

[Qrazy]

THE PIANO SPOILERS

Well, Sven probably should've quoted from earlier on, but the harping on a minor issue with one shot and then calling a film a piece of shit is kinda lol-worthy in itself.

I guess if one has their head up their ass that's what it seems like I"m doing. :P But rather I am calling a film a piece of shit and then tangentially picking out one little thing that I found especially stupid as a casual conversation piece. I am not using that one instance to buoy my entire argument. I think based on the thoroughness of my argumentation at other times and for other issues this would be clear. I could launch into a diatribe about why The Piano sucks on more levels but I don't really see the point. I don't particularly enjoy writing at length about films I dislike. But just for you I will expand on some of the things I dislike about the film.

I should clarify; it is a minor or non-issue to essentially everyone who has seen The Piano and is not Qrazy. Within the context of the film, it fits fine.

Although granted my quibble was obviously a minor one in the greater scheme of the film, and of course you are right that when I spoke about rear projection in the case of Make Way for Tomorrow I wasn't explicating why I actually find the film lacking in a larger sense. However, in this particular case (The Piano) I did just explain how something that was a minor issue actually did manage to undermine a significant emotional moment and I further expanded on a similarly silly moment that happens a little down the road. Both major scenes of violence (emotional centerpieces) in the film are completely asinine.

In the later scene the film then proceeds in excruciatingly awful slo-mo as the protagonist manages to cast off the shackles of her piano and flop like a dying fish back onto the boat. Earlier in the film we witness the slow, boring build up, of the central 'relationship'. That is to say we witness a woman being cajoled into sex and as so many women seem to fall in love with their immediate sexual partner we witness the 'love' that 'blossoms' between them. Although there's no genuine emotional depth to this relationship we are still I suppose supposed to care that the 'relationship' is continuously undermined by the obnoxious little brat Holly Hunter calls a daughter. Oh true, I forgot the part where the seeds of 'love' were first planted. When Keitel and Hunter went to the beach and she played the same song on The Piano for five hours. Ah I also forgot all that brilliant content with the Maori and the film's attention to detail with it's peripheral characters. I really feel I got to know that old white woman and Maori native number 3, these are complex, revealing characterizations.

Sweetie was great. An Angel at My Table and The Piano were both really, really poor. They're humourless, they're tedious and they have little to say aesthetically or thematically about the narratives they're examining.

[Bosco B Thug]

I appreciate peremptory quips as a constructive way to usher in convo about a topic. Opinions are a bitch and sometime's it's best to start simple.

Qrazy re: The Piano, though = pshhh. Thanks for ruining that blood splatter for me forever.

Although granted my quibble was obviously a minor one in the greater scheme of the film, and of course you are right that when I spoke about rear projection in the case of Make Way for Tomorrow I wasn't explicating why I actually find the film lacking in a larger sense. However, in this particular case (The Piano) I did just explain how something that was a minor issue actually did manage to undermine a significant emotional moment and I further expanded on a similarly silly moment that happens a little down the road. Both major scenes of violence (emotional centerpieces) in the film are completely asinine.

In the later scene the film then proceeds in excruciatingly awful slo-mo as the protagonist manages to cast off the shackles of her piano and flop like a dying fish back onto the boat. Earlier in the film we witness the slow, boring build up, of the central 'relationship'. That is to say we witness a woman being cajoled into sex and as so many women seem to fall in love with their immediate sexual partner we witness the 'love' that 'blossoms' between them. Although there's no genuine emotional depth to this relationship we are still I suppose supposed to care that the 'relationship' is continuously undermined by the obnoxious little brat Holly Hunter calls a daughter. Oh true, I forgot the part where the seeds of 'love' were first planted. When Keitel and Hunter went to the beach and she played the same song on The Piano for five hours. Ah I also forgot all that brilliant content with the Maori and the film's attention to detail with it's peripheral characters. I really feel I got to know that old white woman and Maori native number 3, these are complex, revealing characterizations.

Sweetie was great. An Angel at My Table and The Piano were both really, really poor. They're humourless, they're tedious and they have little to say aesthetically or thematically about the narratives they're examining.

The only defense I can pose for The Piano right now is it seems you found little inspiring about Hunter's character. Which can be helped, IMO, if you give a little less weight to her relationship to the men. Then again, that can't help Campion's style if it rubs you the wrong way.

I shat bricks over The Piano, though. I wanted to marry it.

[Sven]

But rather I am calling a film a piece of shit and then tangentially picking out one little thing that I found especially stupid as a casual conversation piece. I am not using that one instance to buoy my entire argument. I think based on the thoroughness of my argumentation at other times and for other issues this would be clear.

I'm very sorry that it feels like you have to explain this, being as it is so self-evident.

I did just explain how something that was a minor issue actually did manage to undermine a significant emotional moment and I further expanded on a similarly silly moment that happens a little down the road.

You didn't explain how anything did anything, nor did you expand on any moment beyond simply mentioning it.

In the later scene the film then proceeds in excruciatingly awful slo-mo as the protagonist manages to cast off the shackles of her piano and flop like a dying fish back onto the boat. Earlier in the film we witness the slow, boring build up, of the central 'relationship'. That is to say we witness a woman being cajoled into sex and as so many women seem to fall in love with their immediate sexual partner we witness the 'love' that 'blossoms' between them. Although there's no genuine emotional depth to this relationship we are still I suppose supposed to care that the 'relationship' is continuously undermined by the obnoxious little brat Holly Hunter calls a daughter. Oh true, I forgot the part where the seeds of 'love' were first planted. When Keitel and Hunter went to the beach and she played the same song on The Piano for five hours. Ah I also forgot all that brilliant content with the Maori and the film's attention to detail with it's peripheral characters. I really feel I got to know that old white woman and Maori native number 3, these are complex, revealing characterizations.

Sarcastic plot summary does not compelling criticism make.

I don't love the film, so I don't know why I've decided to take on this particular discussion, though I know I do tend to respond to sweeping condemnation, particularly of such an unclear variety. When one chimes in with a pithy dismissal of a well-loved film, others like myself get curious and want more perspective. I understand, though, if it's just a matter of being unwilling to engage in specificity with a text in which you are not interested.