28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Skitch]

I watched Guns of Navarone for the first time this week (on VHS). I loved it. That scene about the beginning of the third act where Peck and Niven argue is probably top ten scene in classic cinema for me. Incredible to watch.

[Skitch]

In other [insomnia] news, Alien Arrival (now on Netflix!!!!1!) is somewhere between Leviathon and The Room. Yes, that Room. I don't know what is happening. It's like eating acid, but it's 5am. Save me, I don't know what's going on

[Skitch]

Guys...seriously...you have to watch this. It's making me insane. This third act is Jodorowsky's Dune crossed with a bad Troma voicemail?

[Irish]

In other [insomnia] news, Alien Arrival (now on Netflix!!!!1!) is somewhere between Leviathon and The Room. Yes, that Room. I don't know what is happening. It's like eating acid, but it's 5am. Save me, I don't know what's going on

I kinda wish you had started a thread and live-posted your reaction as you watched it

PS: See Damu's friend's movie. Maybe a pick for MovieFreaks?

[Dukefrukem]

Don't know how many of you can see this but I just re-watched Pepe le Moko (1937) [Netflix DVD]. Awesome film! Jean Gabin is like the French Bogart. Very affecting film. How many films were done in Algiers? I just love these films shot on location.

Edit: NOT the first film noir - that still goes to Asphalt (May, 1929) unless someone can prove otherwise.

Im' putting this at the top of my queue.

[Skitch]

Yeah I got drunk this morning. Sorry about that. Hooray for my 3 hours of sleep though.

[Skitch]

I kinda wish you had started a thread and live-posted your reaction as you watched it

PS: See Damu's friend's movie. Maybe a pick for MovieFreaks?

If I had known it would be how it was, I would have.

I will def try to do that this month!

[baby doll]

Don't know how many of you can see this but I just re-watched Pepe le Moko (1937) [Netflix DVD]. Awesome film! Jean Gabin is like the French Bogart. Very affecting film. How many films were done in Algiers? I just love these films shot on location.

Almost the entire film was shot on a soundstage in Paris.

Edit: NOT the first film noir - that still goes to Asphalt (May, 1929) unless someone can prove otherwise.

First of all, I've never heard anybody describe Asphalt--an UFA melodrama Ã* la Pabst--as film noir. But, then again, film noir such an ahistorical term that I can't imagine anyone proving (or disproving) that any film qualifies as noir, since the term was only ever applied retroactively (beginning, if I'm not mistaken, in France in 1946).

[Ivan Drago]

In other [insomnia] news, Alien Arrival (now on Netflix!!!!1!) is somewhere between Leviathon and The Room. Yes, that Room. I don't know what is happening. It's like eating acid, but it's 5am. Save me, I don't know what's going on

Netflix recommended that to me based on how much I like The Bad Batch.

That sounds like it doesn't bode well for your Roulette pick this week, but I swear, it's just Netflix's algorithms being crazy. Plus, I actually really like The Bad Batch, sooooooo.....there's that?

[Skitch]

Plus, I actually really like The Bad Batch, sooooooo.....there's that?

Spoiler alert...I liked the bad batch too.

Edit: there couldn't be a further separation between the bad batch and alien arrival. It's the sun and pluto.

[Ivan Drago]

Spoiler alert...I liked the bad batch too.

Edit: there couldn't be a further separation between the bad batch and alien arrival. It's the sun and pluto.

YES!!!! The more I think about that movie, the more I like it. The soundtrack and cinematography are awesome, and while its subtext is very much visible on the surface, the tone is so hypnotic and the universe is so bizarre in its uniqueness that there's no way I can't enjoy it. I know how much you and our mutual friend dislike A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, but after seeing The Bad Batch, I really want to see it.

As for Alien Arrival, I'll more than likely watch it when I've come back from a party with more than a few beers in me.

[Morris Schæffer]

I watched Guns of Navarone for the first time this week (on VHS). I loved it. That scene about the beginning of the third act where Peck and Niven argue is probably top ten scene in classic cinema for me. Incredible to watch.

This is an all-time favorite, they don't make'em like this anymore. They should, we don't get a lot of fun WW2 men-on-a-mission flicks anymore.
For me it's up there with Bridge on the River Kwai, The Great Escape and Where Eagles Dare. If you like Navarone, check out Where Eagles Dare, you'll know where my username comes from. Give Force 10 From Navarone a wide berth!

I have Guns of... on Blu-ray, perhaps it's time I actually rewatch it.

[Skitch]

I'll check out Where Eagles Dare for sure. I'll be upgrading Navarone at some point. I picked up that, Bridge on River Kwai, and Fahrenheit 451 on vhs, just because why not.

[Irish]

I thought this was interesting, but it's causing something of a stink, too:

This Future Looks Familiar: Watching Blade Runner in 2017

The author is novelist Sarah Gailey.

More longish discussion here: http://www.metafilter.com/169771/Its...-strange-to-me

[Skitch]

I thought this was interesting, but it's causing something of a stink, too:

This Future Looks Familiar: Watching Blade Runner in 2017

The author is novelist Sarah Gailey.

More longish discussion here: http://www.metafilter.com/169771/Its...-strange-to-me

Its not an odd opinion/viewpoint to take imo. The only bit where she loses me (and admittedly its a nitpick) is when she says "Nobody tells you about...". Well of course not. If we said "Hey want to watch a movie where a slave is gunned down in the streets for trying to be part of society and nobody cares?" Who would answer "Yes!"? Duh.

Edit: Also, from the discussion...

If the writer finds this to be unexpected or astonishing, I can only conclude that the self-described cave they were living in for long enough to have missed Blade Runner contained no Philip K. Dick whatsoever.

Yeah, this.

[Izzy Black]

But, then again, film noir such an ahistorical term that I can't imagine anyone proving (or disproving) that any film qualifies as noir, since the term was only ever applied retroactively (beginning, if I'm not mistaken, in France in 1946).

Not sure why that should matter. If the term is well defined enough (which it arguably isn't, which is the real problem), that's enough to go back and look at see which movies fit the criteria. And it's not so ahistorical, when the term comes at a time when canonical noirs were at least still being made, and well before a long tradition of blatantly self-reflexive neo-noir.

[Izzy Black]

First of all, I've never heard anybody describe Asphalt--an UFA melodrama Ã* la Pabst--as film noir.

Should say I'm also skeptical of this, especially given its conclusion. And it's worth noting M came out in '31, just a couple of years later, and is plainly a canonical case.

[baby doll]

Not sure why that should matter. If the term is well defined enough (which it arguably isn't, which is the real problem), that's enough to go back and look at see which movies fit the criteria. And it's not so ahistorical, when the term comes at a time when canonical noirs were at least still being made, and well before a long tradition of blatantly self-reflexive neo-noir.

The term may have been used in France as early as 1946, but probably not that many Hollywood directors were aware of this at the time--especially since, as Richard Brody points out, it doesn't seem to have been commonly used in France either. The only major counter-example of which I'm aware is the photo of Robert Aldrich holding a copy of the Borde-Chaumeton book on film noir in the '50s.

[Izzy Black]

The term may have been used in France as early as 1946, but probably not that many Hollywood directors were aware of this at the time--especially since, as Richard Brody points out, it doesn't seem to have been commonly used in France either. The only major counter-example of which I'm aware is the photo of Robert Aldrich holding a copy of the Borde-Chaumeton book on film noir in the '50s.

The classic noir directors almost certainly hadn't heard the term. It's famously a retroactive term as far as widespread use is concerned. I wasn't denying that point. It didn't really kick off in America until the late 60s and early 70s, which is around the time the film noir directors first heard it used to describe their films, and even then they still rejected the notion they had any conscious style in mind. They were nonetheless in effect perfecting formulas and conventions, and my point was that the term was coined at this time to pick up on these conventions. I think even the (more expansive) modern sense of the term invokes these same conventions and has influenced neo-noir. For instance, the target of Nino Frank's original '46 article was Laura, The Maltease Falcon, Double Idemnity, and Murder, My Sweet. Three of these were based on novels by American hardboiled detective novelists (Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler). The joint influence of these writers on noir and other factors like the aesthetics of German Expressionism and Citizen Kane on the visual style is hard to deny, especially at RKO in the 40s. But like I said, it wouldn't matter if Frank said it then or if we just coined the term today. If the criteria is well-defined, then we can determine whether a movie fits the bill or not. Many movements, genres, and styles in art are coined retroactively. I'm obviously not as skeptical as others about the term's application and use.

[Grouchy]

I thought film noir was supposed to be one of the most well defined genres ever - it opens with The Maltese Falcon in 1941 and it closes with Touch of Evil in 1958.

Most German films of the 1920s and 30s are predecessors in the style of cinematography, since many noir directors and DPs were German expatriates. I don't think M is noir simply because it has a dark subject matter. It lacks most of the trademarks of the genre.

[Dukefrukem]

The Maltese Falcon is incredible. Just wanted to post that.

[megladon8]

Yes it is. One of the best.

Just got back from the library with some Truffaut movie. "The 400 Pounds of Blow" or something.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Yes it is. One of the best.

Just got back from the library with some Truffaut movie. "The 400 Pounds of Blow" or something.

Noice.

[baby doll]

The classic noir directors almost certainly hadn't heard the term. It's famously a retroactive term as far as widespread use is concerned. I wasn't denying that point. It didn't really kick off in America until the late 60s and early 70s, which is around the time the film noir directors first heard it used to describe their films, and even then they still rejected the notion they had any conscious style in mind. They were nonetheless in effect perfecting formulas and conventions, and my point was that the term was coined at this time to pick up on these conventions. I think even the (more expansive) modern sense of the term invokes these same conventions and has influenced neo-noir. For instance, the target of Nino Frank's original '46 article was Laura, The Maltease Falcon, Double Idemnity, and Murder, My Sweet. Three of these were based on novels by American hardboiled detective novelists (Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler). The joint influence of these writers on noir and other factors like the aesthetics of German Expressionism and Citizen Kane on the visual style is hard to deny, especially at RKO in the 40s. But like I said, it wouldn't matter if Frank said it then or if we just coined the term today. If the criteria is well-defined, then we can determine whether a movie fits the bill or not. Many movements, genres, and styles in art are coined retroactively. I'm obviously not as skeptical as others about the term's application and use.

I think it's pretty debatable whether the criteria for film noir is well defined. Or to put it another way, since the term was only applied retroactively, like melodrama, it's open to a wide range of possibly irreconcilable definitions. (Do Mildred Pierce and Leave Her to Heaven qualify as noirs? Why should we assume that the noir period ended with Touch of Evil? Just because Paul Schrader said so?)

[Peng]

Blade Runner (1982)

Second watch of the film (and second of the Final Cut as well), and I’d really thought I would like it more this time (I first watched it more than three years ago and gave it 7.5/10 then). But there’s a huge vacantness to its storytelling, odd rhythms, and characters that seem to detract from, rather than add to, its immense world-building and gorgeous style (one example is Deckard’s chase of Zhora; a sequence that should have been at least a bit horrific instead comes off stylishly, almost distractingly beautiful to me, apart from a tiny note of tear at the end). Two major exceptions where that vacantness manages to match its thematic/story elements and come off so haunting: Rachael’s two crushingly soul-searching visits to Deckard’s apartment, and Rutger Hauer’s still-magnificent and achingly sad performance. 6.5/10