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Thread: Match Cut Madness 2: Best of the 90s

  1. #476
    Quote Quoting baby doll (view post)
    For me it's less a matter of "heighted" vs. "subdued" than a question of how purposeful a given film's style is. Whether one prefers Notorious or Vertigo (or Rear Window or Marnie for that matter), Hitchcock's stylistic choices are invariably motivated by the narrative. He would never move his camera simply to give a scene "energy" or frame a shot so as to pay homage to an earlier film. That's not to say Hitchcock didn't have influences, but there's a world of difference between Hitchcock's assimilation of German expressionism and Soviet montage and, for instance, De Palma's mechanical reproduction in The Untouchables of the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin, which is merely an act of theft.

    Incidentally, the term "immersive" makes my skin crawl, especially in reference to classical Hollywood cinema, since this wasn't something people were talking about until about twenty years ago circa The Lord of the Rings as video game aesthetics started to infiltrate mainstream filmmaking. In Hitchcock's day (and even into the New Hollywood period), people were more likely to speak of expressiveness than immersion.
    I actually feel the same way you do about movies that feel "pointlessly" stylish, like I mentioned with Easy Rider, or certain De Palma films where he indulged in "over-direction", especially with something like Dressed To Kill (which wasn't a very good movie anyway)​. But, heightened aesthetics in films are still one of those element that vary from being good or bad depending on the individual film, and it's the good examples, the ones that are able to possess a more vivid style, while still retaining a sense of purpose to it, are the ones that I have my special fondness for.
    Last edited by StuSmallz; 05-03-2021 at 01:57 AM.

  2. #477
    Quote Quoting StuSmallz (view post)
    I actually feel the same way you do about movies that feel "pointlessly" stylish, like I mentioned with Easy Rider, or certain De Palma films where he indulged in "over-direction", especially with something like Dressed To Kill​. But, heightened aesthetics in films are still one of those element that vary from being good or bad depending on the individual film, and it's the good examples, the ones that are able to possess a more vivid style, while still retaining a sense of purpose to it, are the ones that I have my special fondness for.
    I'm actually not totally sure what you mean by "heightened aesthetics," since anything aesthetic is by definition heightened compared with ordinary perception or else one wouldn't perceive it as aesthetic in the first place. Even in highly realistic films, like those of Naruse Mikio (who largely abandoned subjective camera techniques after the '30s), the settings are simplified and streamlined compared with real life, purifying them of any distracting "noise" that would detract from the narrative. As Dave Kehr observed in a review of Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, "It's an irony of the art of movies that, while middle-range directors begin anonymously and develop their expressive quirks over the course of their careers, the greatest filmmakers—Ford, Renoir, Lang, Hawks—begin in a burst of baroque expressionism and gradually narrow their stylistic choices, moving toward simplicity and plainness." Of course, there's a huge difference between the genuine anonymity of any hack director and the elegant simplicity of late Naruse, which betrays infinite care and patience in the staging and framing of each shot.

    Regarding De Palma, I would argue that his most interesting and substantial films are precisely those in which the narrative is largely a pretext for his directorial virtuosity: Sisters, Dressed to Kill, Raising Cain, and especially Femme fatale--all of which he wrote himself. It's when he's working with somebody else's material that his style feels inorganic: the ostentatious set pieces in The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, and Mission: Impossible, and the bonkers finale of The Black Dahlia, strike me as strained efforts to elevate lousy scripts by cramming some personality into the margins of the story. (Of the films he didn't write himself, Carrie is the only one I've seen that approaches the level of my four favourites, although I need to take another look at Obsession.)
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  3. #478
    ~12 hrs left.

  4. #479
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    Quote Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
    ~12 hrs left.
    Am I eligible to vote?

  5. #480
    Quote Quoting Irish (view post)
    Am I eligible to vote?
    Of course!

  6. #481
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    Uh .. Stalker, don't click the spoiler.

  7. #482
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    Everyone else go ahead and click before noon!!!!

  8. #483
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    Of my own free will and under absolutely no outside influence, I vote for Pulp Fiction and Fargo.

  9. #484
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Thats steep price, bro. Whats one get me?

  10. #485
    Voting is closed. Here are MC's results:

    Champion
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    Runner-Up
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    Third Place
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    The madness is over... or is it?
    Last edited by Idioteque Stalker; 05-03-2021 at 11:35 PM.

  11. #486
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    I like the trivia bits on the first two movies, and then.... Fargo.

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  12. #487
    Quote Quoting Ezee E (view post)
    I like the trivia bits on the first two movies, and then.... Fargo.
    Damn, my images didn't upload. Fixed.
    Last edited by Idioteque Stalker; 05-03-2021 at 11:36 PM.

  13. #488
    I'm the problem it's me DFA1979's Avatar
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    I did an ok write up about Goodfellas years back for my Top 10. Eh I could do better this time I think. Maybe.
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  14. #489
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    Goodfellas is excellent in the first half. But the second half drags and drags.

    Pulp Fiction is great from start to finish.
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    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
    Quote Quoting TGM (view post)
    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?

  15. #490
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Pulp Ficton is second to Scarface on my most overrated movie ever list. But I guess I'm a rectangle.

  16. #491
    Quote Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
    Goodfellas is excellent in the first half. But the second half drags and drags.
    I must've seen a different movie than you did. Are you sure you're not thinking of Casino?
    Just because...
    The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
    Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
    The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild

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    The (New) World

  17. #492
    A Platypus Grouchy's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
    Goodfellas is excellent in the first half. But the second half drags and drags.
    Wow, I've never heard anyone say this about Goodfellas. I don't know any other movie that is so compulsively watchable, to be honest.

  18. #493
    Bonus Round! Madness 1.0 Champs vs. Madness 2.0 Champs.

    Do the Right Thing vs. Goodfellas
    The Shining vs. Pulp Fiction
    Aliens vs. Fargo
    Amadeus vs. Boogie Nights

    What appears to be a general dissatisfaction with the 90s results may lead one to think the 80s could sweep, but there's only one way to know for sure. Vote now!
    Last edited by Idioteque Stalker; 05-06-2021 at 05:01 PM.

  19. #494
    Do the Right Thing vs. Goodfellas
    The Shining vs. Pulp Fiction
    Aliens vs. Fargo
    Amadeus vs. Boogie Nights
    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. #495
    Do the Right Thing vs. Goodfellas (OUCH)
    The Shining vs. Pulp Fiction
    Aliens vs. Fargo
    Amadeus vs. Boogie Nights (yawn)

  21. #496
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Goodfellas
    The Shining
    Aliens
    Amadeus

  22. #497
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    Alright alright I went too far with the drags thing.

    I just start to lose it around the whole helicopter following bit.
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    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
    Quote Quoting TGM (view post)
    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?

  23. #498
    Cinematographer Mal's Avatar
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    Do the Right Thing vs. Goodfellas
    The Shining vs. Pulp Fiction
    Aliens vs. Fargo
    Amadeus vs. Boogie Nights

  24. #499
    Quote Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
    I just start to lose it around the whole helicopter following bit.
    Best sequence of the movie. Anxiety-inducing, sure, but still. One of Scorsese/Schoonmaker’s greatest creations.

  25. #500
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    The helicopter sequence is one of the sequences that drew me to loving movies. Still holds up for me.

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