28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[transmogrifier]

In Europe and some other territories, iirc. Not in the U.S.

Got all the biggies here in Korea. Of course, I've been too busy to see anything except Arrietty and The Cat Returns but I'm going to be gloriously slothful for a couple of weeks during summer as I binge on Miyasaki.

[Wryan]

I just remembered 2014's Ragnarok, an overlooked, sturdy, wonderfully effective creature feature. Even if it borrows some familiar elements from other movies, it does so quite efficiently and gets the rest just right. The cinematography and effects are shockingly good for what was probably a lower-budget movie. The actors are game for the monster mashing and pretty good at the family drama/obsession stuff too. I need to rewatch it sometime.

[MadMan]

I think most of of Ghibili has been added to netflix? Or will be soon?

I thought that was the case. Knowing how things go Hulu will probably get them first or eventually. I think the new HBO app might have some maybe.

[BuffaloWilder]

I just watched Elevator To The Gallows for the first time, and it came on the back of a rewatch of Rififi. It's startling how much the former owes to the latter - you can almost feel the hero worship Malle had for Dassin.

[Grouchy]

In one hour I'll be screening The Conversation in Cine Colombo - twitch.tv/cinecolombo

[baby doll]

I just watched Elevator To The Gallows for the first time, and it came on the back of a rewatch of Rififi. It's startling how much the former owes to the latter - you can almost feel the hero worship Malle had for Dassin.

Malle was also an assistant to Bresson (along with Jean-Marie Straub, oddly enough) on Un condamné Ã* mort s'est échappé.

Speaking of Malle and hero-worship, while rewatching Le Souffle au coeur last week, I realized that Wes Anderson has based his entire career on treating Malle's film as a storehouse of characters and situations to plunder in his own films: bratty rich kids with excellent taste in music and literature, ritzy European hotels, boy scouts, inappropriate relationships between teens and adult women.

[MadMan]

I thought he mostly ripped off/homaged Preston Sturges and Ernst Lubitsch. But Malle makes sense.

[Grouchy]

I thought his entire worldview was a caricature of Harold and Maude to be honest.

[StuSmallz]

I'd like to talk about something I've been wanting to for some time now, which is how the use of handheld camera work in the original Bourne trilogy never bothered me, and in fact, actually enhances my enjoyment of those films, because I view the use of shaky cam in them in very much the same way as I view it in something like the combat scenes in Saving Private Ryan, in that they're designed to give us a much more visceral, participatory, firsthand viewing experience, and make us feel like we're actually right there in the thick of it, and we don't need a stable medium shot of, say, a boat full of soldiers being gunned down to get a clear picture of what's going on physically, when we can get the same basic gist from a more kinetic close-up, as well as the additional sensation of feeling like we actually there fighting in the battle (a feeling we wouldn't get as much with a more traditionally "coherent" shooting style).


And, while some might say that I'm comparing apples to oranges, and that the point of an Action movie is to be able to see the action clearly, I think there's room for alternate styles in the genre, and while I usually think shaky cam is as obnoxious as the next person, there are still ways to get it right. And, while I love the action scenes in something like The Matrix, and wouldn't want to see them shot in style of the latter Bourne films, I feel that Greengrass made it work in scenes like this hand-to-hand fight in Supremacy, where I get more than enough of the general gist of what's happening in the fight, and who has the upper hand at which points, partly because this scene actually isn't edited all that much, as it's not like Greengrass was trying to just blindly throw gratuitous cuts at us like an hack in order to create the illusion of kinetic energy in the scene, unlike an actual bad example of a modern action scene, like the one in Taken 3 where it takes them something like 15 edits to show Liam Neeson doing something as simple as jumping over a fence:

[Lazlo]

I've always loved the action in Bourne for the exact reasons you cite. Rep!

[Dukefrukem]

It's been a while since I've watched those movies. Need to rewatch. But my recollection is they are incredibly mediocre and overrated.

[MadMan]

I like the Bourne movies but the Mission Impossible series is much better.

[baby doll]

Apparently Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York is the top grossing film on the planet right now.

[transmogrifier]

Apparently Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York is the top grossing film on the planet right now.

Man, reporting sucks. Korea has never had a "strict lockdown" as alleged by that article. School's closed, and large gatherings were banned, but we have not been confined to our houses for a single second of this pandemic. Hell, the theaters were never shut down. Many closed voluntarily because there was no one coming.

[Irish]

One of you recently watched "Beanpole" and I'd like your thoughts on it, please.

[Lazlo]

Today it was announced that the oldest theater in my city, The Manor, would not reopen after the pandemic. It was 73 years old, two screens dedicated to "indie" and foreign stuff. Tragic, and to make matters worse: in the past three years we've gone from 13 screens across three different art house theaters to zero. Two closed, one was bought by AMC, renovated, and is now just six more screens of the widest releases.

The closing had been long rumored even without the pandemic, but man this hurts. There's a million people living in this city and we can't even support one art house. Nope, we simply must have more apartment buildings and breweries.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/ne...242858576.html

[Dukefrukem]

That sucks Lazlo.

I will always be grateful that Boston has an entire burrow of hipsters and art students dedicated to keeping out art houses open. I dont go there often as much anymore moving out of the city, but I like to know it's there. Last film I saw there was Hateful Eight on 70mm.

[Lazlo]

Yeah, it's a bummer that the biggest city in the state doesn't have a functional arts scene or a college that has any tradition of being anything other than a commuter school.

[MadMan]

Today it was announced that the oldest theater in my city, The Manor, would not reopen after the pandemic. It was 73 years old, two screens dedicated to "indie" and foreign stuff. Tragic, and to make matters worse: in the past three years we've gone from 13 screens across three different art house theaters to zero. Two closed, one was bought by AMC, renovated, and is now just six more screens of the widest releases.

The closing had been long rumored even without the pandemic, but man this hurts. There's a million people living in this city and we can't even support one art house. Nope, we simply must have more apartment buildings and breweries.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/ne...242858576.html

That really sucks. I wonder if I will make it to an arthouse theater before most of them go out of business.

[origami_mustache]

I just watched White Chicks for the first time.

[transmogrifier]

I just watched White Chicks for the first time.

Implying that there is going to be more?

[Dukefrukem]

I just watched White Chicks for the first time.

I've always been curious....

[Skitch]

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

[Idioteque Stalker]

A young well-educated lady once told me White Chicks was her favorite movie.

[MadMan]

I never saw it.