Match Cut Presents: Four Top Fifties

[Dukefrukem]

Red Beard was burned into my memory.

[Morris Schæffer]

Red Beard was burned into my memory.

Haha, there have been some colorful characters there. Good some are now here.

[Skitch]

Red Beard was burned into my memory.

He and I almost met up to go to a convention once.

[megladon8]

All of the members of the Axis I consider good friends, no matter how far away they are or the fact that I've only met one of them IRL.

They've been in my life for more than half of its runtime.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Such a great movie. Possibly my favorite Bill Murray role as well. That screenshot really pops--maybe all Wes Anderson is like that.

[Skitch]

I need to check that one off the list. I've only seen bits and pieces.

[Idioteque Stalker]

#46



Exit Through the Gift Shop

An earnest and fascinating documentary about street art, until it isn’t. Even among those who have no problem proclaiming street art to be legitimate art, there are still people who have a problem with Thierry Guetta, who ten years later seems less like a psychotic opportunist swept up in the scene and more like one of the world’s most notable pre-instagram, post-authenticity success stories.

In fact, Banksy was again ahead of the game by crafting a film so intellectually gripping and visually seductive nobody ever much cared if the entire thing was an elaborate ruse. Yes, it’s about street art, but on another level it’s about the nature of art criticism, even art itself, and how celebrity effects everything. By a certain point we are so deep inside the rabbit hole, the only question that makes sense is the one hinted at by the film’s title: if someone is willing to pay, does anything else even matter?

[transmogrifier]

46.

Movie: Audition (2000)
Director: Takeshi Miike
Commentary: Perhaps one of the most perfectly structured horrors of all time, this takes its time benignly setting up an atmosphere of casual misogyny that explodes into visceral terror, both mental and physical. The juxtaposition between the gentle dramedy of the first half and the piano-wire tension of the second kind of renders all questions of whose to blame moot; rather, you just want to curl up in a little ball and apologize to everyone, just in case.
Key Quote: “Words turn into lies. Only pain can be trusted.”
Best Moment: The sack moves for the first time.



Director: Michael Haneke
Films Seen: 9
Average: 69.33/100
Commentary: Icy, cerebral, a button pusher - Haneke is all of these, and he can occasionally draw the ire of cinema fans when he pushes their buttons (there has always been something ironic about horror fans feeling slighted by his central thesis of Funny Games (x2), refusing to interrogate the relationship between what the audience looks for in a horror and what film-makers deliver but sullenly accusing the film-maker of being condescending). But damn if his films are not brimming with ideas and stunning shots.
Best Film: Cache
Worst Film: The Piano Teacher. Not a fan of the “crazy person does randomly self-destructive crazy things in an art film” subgenre.
Key Quote: “All movies assault the viewer in one way or another”


Musical Artist: Talking Heads
Commentary: One of those bands that I came to late, that I dumped a whole lot of albums into my library, and that I listen to regularly, but that I haven’t really embraced yet as my own, if you know what I mean. I like them, I think they have made some great albums, but they are still aural wallpaper for me at the moment. I really need to sit down and listen to these albums seriously.
Best Album: Tentatively Remain in Light (1980).
Best Song: “The Great Curve’” from Remain in Light (1980)

[Skitch]

I would greatly enjoy a trans commentary track on Haneke film.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Just in time for my annual Audition/Babe double feature!

[transmogrifier]

45

Movie: Les Diaboliques (1955)
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzet
Commentary: So...I did not review this when I saw this 10 years ago, so all of the specifics have washed away, and I’m left with the feeling of escalating tension. I need to rewatch this ASAP. Thus, I leave you with the great Pauline Kael: “The setting is a French provincial school for boys; the headmaster's wife (Vera Clouzot) and mistress (Simone Signoret) conspire to murder him. It sounds simple, but the characters seem fearfully knowing, and there are undertones of strange, tainted pleasures and punishments. According to the director, Henri-Georges Clouzot, "I sought only to amuse myself and the little child who sleeps in all our hearts-the child who hides her head under the bedcovers and begs, 'Daddy, Daddy, frighten me.'" Clouzot does it, all right; his Grand Guignol techniques are so calculatedly grisly that they seem silly, yet they succeed in making one feel queasy and sordid and scared. (Some people may feel too queasy to find the film really pleasurable.)”
Key Quote: “It's always the ones who know how [to swim] that get drowned. The ones who can't, don't go near the pool.”


Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Films Seen: 10
Average: 69.45
Commentary: Not much for me to say here - the man is an institution, and you know what you are going to get with a Miyazaki joint: plucky young lead, morally grey antagonists, metaphysical oddities, strident environmentalism, and a narrative that has a million things on its mind at once. Sometimes it seems like he is trying to jam together 5 films at once in order to make up for the laborious process of animating his flights of fancy, but then you have that aching melancholy springing up from the whirr of energy, and you can’t help but admire the alchemy.
Best Film: Spirited Away
“Worst” Film: Howl’s Moving Castle
Key Quote: ““Yet, even amidst the hatred and carnage, life is still worth living. It is possible for wonderful encounters and beautiful things to exist.”


Musician: Future of the Left
Commentary: Sure, they are a slightly more pale version of their predecessor Mclusky, but the monster riffs and sardonic humor are intact and wonderful.
Best Album: Travels with Myself and Another (2009)
Best Song: “Real Men Hunt in Packs” from Curses (2007)

[StuSmallz]

45

Movie: Les Diaboliques (1955)
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzet
Commentary: So...I did not review this when I saw this 10 years ago, so all of the specifics have washed away, and I’m left with the feeling of escalating tension. I need to rewatch this ASAP. Thus, I leave you with the great Pauline Kael: “The setting is a French provincial school for boys; the headmaster's wife (Vera Clouzot) and mistress (Simone Signoret) conspire to murder him. It sounds simple, but the characters seem fearfully knowing, and there are undertones of strange, tainted pleasures and punishments. According to the director, Henri-Georges Clouzot, "I sought only to amuse myself and the little child who sleeps in all our hearts-the child who hides her head under the bedcovers and begs, 'Daddy, Daddy, frighten me.'" Clouzot does it, all right; his Grand Guignol techniques are so calculatedly grisly that they seem silly, yet they succeed in making one feel queasy and sordid and scared. (Some people may feel too queasy to find the film really pleasurable.)”
Key Quote: “It's always the ones who know how [to swim] that get drowned. The ones who can't, don't go near the pool.”

I liked Les Diaboliques, and found it to be fairly creepy and atmospheric on the whole, but I also couldn't help but feel I would've liked it more if I hadn't seen Vertigo beforehand, seeing as how, since both films were adapted from the same writing team with fairly similar premises, Diaboliques ended up feeling like a less emotionally engaging, psychologically insightful, and ultimately less substantive version of Hitchcock's film to me in the end. Then again, I also felt there was something missing from Wages Of Fear to make it a great film, so maybe I'm just not a huge fan of Clouzot's work in general.

[Morris Schæffer]

Show me love is a fave of mine.

[Skitch]

I'm glad worst was in quotes. What was your score?

[transmogrifier]

I'm glad worst was in quotes. What was your score?

53/100

[Skitch]

53/100

Oh I was hoping for at least 60s. :/ Come on now

[transmogrifier]

Spoiler alert: Refn will not appear on any of my lists.

[Dukefrukem]

Spoiler alert: Refn will not appear on any of my lists.

Excellent!!

[Mal]

Great. Wonderful. Glad to know.

I've been meaning to see both Show Me Love and Les Diaboliques forever. I could do a true ladies night double feature.

[StuSmallz]

45. DRIVE (2011)

Surprised to see this make your list, Zac, considering that the last time I saw you talk about it, you were singing a much different tune. In all seriousness though, I am really happy to see Drive on your list, since I'm a big fan of it as well, and I agree that Refn did an amazing job of reinvigorating the expected Crime cliches with his attention to building strong, memorable characters, and his amazing aesthetic, with the unbeatable combo of a beautiful visual style, and one of my favorite movie soundtracks to boot (my favorite song is "Under Your Spell", btw). Good pick!

[Mal]

Surprised to see this make your list, Zac, considering that the last time I saw you talk about it, you were singing a much different tune. In all seriousness though, I am really happy to see Drive on your list, since I'm a big fan of it as well, and I agree that Refn did an amazing job of reinvigorating the expected Crime cliches with his attention to building strong, memorable characters, and his amazing aesthetic, with the unbeatable combo of a beautiful visual style, and one of my favorite movie soundtracks to boot (my favorite song is "Under Your Spell", btw). Good pick!

Sarcasm, ya stalker.

[Morris Schæffer]

Something with an infant?

Drive is insanely cool

[Idioteque Stalker]

#44



Eyes Wide Shut

The psychosexual complexity of Eyes Wide Shut makes it a movie with which one might measure life’s private milestones. Your first foray into erotic arthouse. The first time you watch something porn-adjacent with your partner. The moment you realize infidelity isn’t so black-and-white, then re-realize that maybe it is. Watching it five years after your wedding hoping your marriage never gets to that point, then thirty-five years later wondering if your marriage was ever that strong. The Hartford’s journey provides an outlet for our own innermost fears and desires, the ones we keep hidden behind a mask of social propriety, the low-frequency death of “everything’s fine,” and the white lie we tell ourselves and our loved ones: in no universe would I ever be capable of anything like that.

And the mansion ritual—has there ever been a scene with more striking artistic vision and clarity? The art direction strengthens the indictment of class. The costuming strengthens themes of self deceit and the unknowability of others. The diegetic music elevates everything and, in the words of Nick Nightingale, “I’ve never seen such women.” How exactly does one go on knowing there exists such a perfect balance of high art and base instinct, spirituality and sex, the Appolonian and the Dionysian? “We’re awake now,” says Alice, in a staggering moment of forgiveness and resolve. It’s crucial that her next and final suggestion—quite the exclamation mark on Kubrick’s life and career—is not that they “make love,” but rather something a bit more crudely worded. After all, it’s clear something is missing from their marriage, and how it is identified precisely and without shame makes Eyes Wide Shut’s ending one of cinema’s most sneakily romantic.

[Dukefrukem]

Though I understand your analysis on paper, I never understood the universal love for this. It probably deserves a rewatch.

[Mal]

Definitely rewatch it, Duke. It has only gotten better and better for me as I have gotten older and had different relationships with men. One of the best ever.