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Thread: MC's Criterion Challenge 2021 (by way of Letterboxd)

  1. #101
    Cinematographer Mal's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting DFA1979 (view post)
    Are we on Week 5? I would have to Google what Criterions were even on LaserDisc.
    Week 4, but here’s the list for LD https://boxd.it/1362y

  2. #102
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting DFA1979 (view post)
    Are we on Week 5? I would have to Google what Criterions were even on LaserDisc.
    I only have one Criterion on Laser:


  3. #103
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    If you're only gonna have one, that's a pretty awesome one to have.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  4. #104
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting megladon8 (view post)
    If you're only gonna have one, that's a pretty awesome one to have.
    I didnt even have a player hooked up when I bought it. I couldn't pass it up.

  5. #105
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Turns out Jen had already seen Breathless, so we ended up watching Every Man For Himself for Godard week.

    Will post thoughts tomorrow...
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  6. #106
    I'm the problem it's me DFA1979's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Zac Efron (view post)
    Week 4, but here’s the list for LD https://boxd.it/1362y
    Ok. Thanks!
    Blog!

    And it's happened once again
    I'll turn to a friend
    Someone that understands
    And sees through the master plan
    But everybody's gone
    And I've been here for too long
    To face this on my own
    Well, I guess this is growing up

  7. #107
    I'm the problem it's me DFA1979's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    I only have one Criterion on Laser:

    Hell yeah. I only own it on a SE DVD from Double Dragon.
    Blog!

    And it's happened once again
    I'll turn to a friend
    Someone that understands
    And sees through the master plan
    But everybody's gone
    And I've been here for too long
    To face this on my own
    Well, I guess this is growing up

  8. #108
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Every Man for Himself - Jean Luc Godard, 1980

    Sex can be beautiful, but it can also be very ugly. We mostly get the latter in this film from Godard, which he called his "second first film", as it was his second foray into commercial filmmaking.

    The lives of three people intrersect through the ugliness of abuse, divorce and prostitution. Paul and Denise are a couple who have been dating off and on since Paul's divorce, and are perhaps even more toxic than the relationship Paul had with his wife (and mother of his child). Isabelle is a prostitute who Paul sees once in the film, then runs into later through coincidence.

    Paul is one of the most reprehensible characters I've seen in some time. From the opening frames he is an arrogant and deeply unhappy asshole. But when he and a friend begin openly discussing wanting to molest their own 11 year old daughters, I could barely look at him for the rest of the film.

    Child molestation and rape is something that is approached several times in the film, but to what end I really don't know. Every man in the film is some kind of sexual predator of deviant - either a closeted child molester, or a physical abuser. And if I recall correctly, every father in the film either makes sexual advances towards his own daughter, or voices that he has fantasized about her.

    It made me deeply uncomfortable at times.

    Also interesting to note that the prostitutes in the film are arguably the most noble and wholesome characters in the film.

    I have now seen three Godard films (this, Contempt, and Band of Outsiders), and feel I can firmly sya Godard is not for me.

    However, I will say I disliked this one the least.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  9. #109
    Quote Quoting megladon8 (view post)
    this film from Godard, which he called his "second first film", as it was his second foray into commercial filmmaking.
    By my count, this was Godard's third "second first film" after Bande Ã* part (Godard reportedly told the film's backers he was making a sequel to À bout de souffle) and Numéro deux, and there may be other "second first films" that I've missed.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  10. #110
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    I wish I could get more out of his films.

    He occupies the same space as Michael Haneke for me. I don't find myself feeling the things I think he wants me to feel while watching his films.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  11. #111
    Quote Quoting megladon8 (view post)
    I wish I could get more out of his films.

    He occupies the same space as Michael Haneke for me. I don't find myself feeling the things I think he wants me to feel while watching his films.
    If you felt deeply uncomfortable watching Sauve qui peut (la vie), I think it's safe to say you felt what Godard wanted you to feel. The film isn't exactly fun to watch because it's meant to shake the viewer up rather than comforting them (shock and disgust are characteristic effects of modernist art in general). The film's form and style intentionally make comprehension difficult in order to defamiliarize its subject matter and thereby, in Brecht's words, "free socially conditioned phenomena from that stamp of familiarity which protects them against our grasp." In other words, the point of the film in so many words is that capitalism is disgusting but everybody's gotten used to it, and everything Godard does stylistically is designed to make us feel how disgusting capitalism is by making us feel as if we were encountering it for the first time.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  12. #112
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    But see, I didn't connect any of the events in the film with any kind of anti-capitalism message.

    It felt much more interpersonal, and about sex and relationships.

    Perhaps the fault is on me, the viewer, for not picking up on this.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  13. #113
    Quote Quoting megladon8 (view post)
    But see, I didn't connect any of the events in the film with any kind of anti-capitalism message.

    It felt much more interpersonal, and about sex and relationships.

    Perhaps the fault is on me, the viewer, for not picking up on this.
    I haven't seen the film in about five years, but the way I'm remembering it, the film is about what capitalism does to sex and relationships (hence, the emphasis on prostitution and other forms of domination: e.g., child abuse and domestic violence).
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  14. #114
    Wouldn't guess in a million years Every Man for Himself would be the most popular movie for Godard week.

  15. #115
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    I don't see that connection at all. While it has been 5 years since you saw it, do you remember any specific scenes, situations, or lines of dialogue that communicated that as a theme?

    That reads like something the director said about the film, and people just went with it.

    The closest I can see is that we have women selling themselves for money, thereby cheapening the act of love making by making it a financial transaction. But even that seems thin as a reading.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  16. #116
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
    Wouldn't guess in a million years Every Man for Himself would be the most popular movie for Godard week.
    Limited to what is on Criterion Channel.

    In all honesty we started with 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, and had to turn it off after about 20 minutes. Neither of us had any interest in going further.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  17. #117
    Quote Quoting megladon8 (view post)
    I don't see that connection at all. While it has been 5 years since you saw it, do you remember any specific scenes, situations, or lines of dialogue that communicated that as a theme?

    That reads like something the director said about the film, and people just went with it.

    The closest I can see is that we have women selling themselves for money, thereby cheapening the act of love making by making it a financial transaction. But even that seems thin as a reading.
    I was thinking particularly of the proto-human centipede scene.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  18. #118
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    I was thinking particularly of the proto-human centipede scene.
    Again, I don't see the connection between that and the film having an overall anti-capitalism message.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  19. #119
    Quote Quoting megladon8 (view post)
    Again, I don't see the connection between that and the film having an overall anti-capitalism message.
    The logic of money--and commercial filmmaking--is one of domination: I pay you and you do what I tell you to do (on camera). During the centipede scene, the rich guy says something to the effect of, "We have image. Now let's add sound," implicitly linking the cinematic apparatus to prostitution. Likewise, Paul's relationships are all based on him trying to control women, either through money (prostitution) or physical force (domestic violence and rape). In other words, the film implies that healthy relationships between men and women are impossible under capitalism.
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

    The last book I read was...
    The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain


    The (New) World

  20. #120
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    It could very well be that I couldn't connect with the material, due to having been on the receiving end of sexual abuse for a good chunk of 2019.

    And no, it wasn't Jen. For those who didn't know, we split up for a long while during that year.

    I found the film very icky, which as you said it was intended to be. But maybe I had a bit of a mental block in seeing past the surface.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  21. #121
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Damn dude, sorry to hear that.

  22. #122
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    Damn dude, sorry to hear that.

    Thanks.

    But I honestly wasn't saying that to garner sympathy. Just talking about the film and how / why I might not have connected with it the way I was supposed to.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  23. #123
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    Holy revelation Meg.

    Are you guys back together at this point?
    Twitch / Youtube / Film Diary

    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
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    I work in grocery. I have not gotten sick. My fellow employees have not gotten sick. If the virus were even remotely as contagious as its being presented as, why haven’t entire store staffs who come into contact with hundreds of people per day, thousands per week, all falling ill in mass nationwide?

  24. #124
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
    Holy revelation Meg.

    Are you guys back together at this point?
    Yep. Have been for over a year.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  25. #125
    I'm the problem it's me DFA1979's Avatar
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    Well that's good at least. Still I had no idea, either.
    Blog!

    And it's happened once again
    I'll turn to a friend
    Someone that understands
    And sees through the master plan
    But everybody's gone
    And I've been here for too long
    To face this on my own
    Well, I guess this is growing up

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