Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)

[Pratters]

Plus, how could you not love a movie that has this in it?
Home Alone - Angels With Filthy Souls (only the clip)

Haha, that's an awesome scene. Have forgotten all about it. I'll have to watch both movies again.

[jbissell]

24 City 8/10

The slow pans that Jia uses to capture the factory were really wonderful. I wish I had seen this before sending in my nominations ballot because I probably would've given it a best cinematography vote. There were so many beautiful moments that I was never bothered by any of the talking head stuff (the girl skating on the rooftop was a favorite). There are some weird little moments, like the man being interviewed while a badminton game goes on in the background (in front of a backdrop of the Great Wall, with rockets!), that I also really enjoyed. The choice to mix actors and real subjects didn't add much to the film for me - I wouldn't have even noticed except for recognizing Joan Chen and Zhao Tao (we've discussed all this in previous posts). I did enjoy the playfulness of Chen's segment where she plays a woman nicknamed "Little Flower" because of her resemblance to Chen in the film of the same name. Her story also had the biggest emotional impact on me, specifically when she talks about the picture of the handsome pilot and how his death was "the fault of one of the workers". I thought Jia handled similar material better with Still Life, but I did like 24 City quite a bit.

[Bondo]

The latest from my 200X marathon:

After all the discussion about slow films and such...Silent Light is my favorite film of the marathon so far. I was watching this streaming in HD and man does it look amazing. The opening scene of a starry night fading into sunrise really sets the tone. It has long shots that let you really breathe in the environment and with a few exceptions, it does not seem overdone.

One benefit here is that I feel a personal connection to the setting. I am one generation removed from a farming family in rural Minnesota. This sort of midwestern germanic setting is like going home, and it certainly made me miss it. This helps me understand the emotions, restrained as they are in the stoic nature of the culture. The basic story is a man emotionally torn between his wife/family and the mistress he has fallen in love with. It may not be complicated but it is powerful and emotional. One benefit is that all the characters are likable even as they take actions that are not.

A few complaints that keep it from truly exceptional. The acting (mostly non-professionals apparently) is kind of flat (though it is harder to tell in a foreign language) and the ending is a bit baffling. However, these were not nearly enough to derail my enjoyment.

Rating: 4/5

[Clovis8]

Crazy Heart



Everyone is talking about how great Jeff Bridges is, but the real star of the film is T-Bone Burnett. I think this is some of the best music written for film in years. There are some truly great classic country songs on the soundtrack. It is also really impressive that both Bridges and Ferrell sing in the film since both are really good. Ferrell is especially impressive given that his native accent is thick Irish and here he sounds like a true southern country boy.

Bridges is, of course, great. He is the center of the film and really helps elevate it above the story which it rather predicable. Overall the film is not great but the music and Bridges make it better than it should be.

Grade: B
Music: A+

[smirnoff]

The Counterfeiters (Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2007) This film was strongest at the beginning and end, but the middle nearly put me to sleep. It just spent way too much time playing out a fairly predictable part of the story. Maybe the director felt rushing through the concentration camp scenes would be disrespectful or something. He spends a good hour showing us the everyday atrocities of the prison. It was all pretty typical stuff though. Bad food, cruel guards, no hope. It was like an anchor the otherwise fascinating true story had to drag along. What really made the experience a cold one was that I never cared for any of the characters. I only ever felt for them in a very general way. It's like when you see innocent bystanders get shot in action movies, you never knew them so it doesn't really hit you. Same thing here. Sally, who the film revolves around, was just another guy. What became of him didn't particularly interest me. The only thing that kept me watching was the fact the film was based on a true events. I had no idea such an operation had been undertaken during the war so I was interested to find out more about it. The fact the movie was trying to tell a character's story became a nuisance.

IMDB link

[worm@work]

Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat, 2009)

Such a fun, playful and yet morbid and unnerving little film. It's very stylized and formal and yet, there's such a sense of realism somehow, primarily thanks to the incredible performances all around I think. The young girls are all really fantastic and somehow manage to balance their precociousness with childlike innocence. I might have had some reservations about the framing device except the girl playing the little sister is so perfect and just so incredible to watch that I was glad to be switching back to them from time to time. Plus, it allows for that wonderful scene where it's the girl reading the story entering the forbidden room rather than the young bride. Fairytales that comment on class + gender politics = awesome!
Random aside: I kept getting reminded of Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl while watching this one. The short story with a framing device connection is obvious but thematically as well.

Grade: B+

[flieger]

Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat, 2009)
Grade: B+

Excellent, w@w. Didn't know there was a new Breillat film out, must catch up with it.

Have you seen other Breillat films, worm? She always seems to draw great performances out of her younger female performers.

[worm@work]

Excellent, w@w. Didn't know there was a new Breillat film out, must catch up with it.

Have you seen other Breillat films, worm? She always seems to draw great performances out of her younger female performers.

I've only seen À ma soeur! and yeah, that has great performances too. This one is not as obviously provocative imo. I liked this one better I think.

Oh, and great Bad Lieutenant review . Couldn't agree with you more.

[sdedalus]

Random aside: I kept getting reminded of Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl while watching this one. The short story with a framing device connection is obvious but thematically as well.

Funny you should mention that, as we watched them within a couple days of each other at the VIFF last year and didn't notice the similarity.

Bluebeard was one of the wife's favorites at the festival.  I liked it too, but the ending (with the two girls) didn't really work for me.

[worm@work]

Bluebeard was one of the wife's favorites at the festival.  I liked it too, but the ending (with the two girls) didn't really work for me.

Yeah, didn't care for that ending either but chose to forget about it as soon as I was done with the movie .