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Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5996525 times)

ferris

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30460 on: April 22, 2010, 04:29:13 PM »
All the talk about movies reminds that there's....

ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT!!



...to participate in the BEST OF THE DECADE voting here on The Filmspotting Message Boards. 

We need more participation!!

At a bare minimum, put together a list of your favorite 20-50 films (unranked) from the last 10 years and PM them to me.  If you’re worried you’ve forgotten some titles, check this great list.

If you are interested, there are a bunch more optional categories to vote on  - in fact, there’s a whole forum dedicated to them, each with great starter lists! 

For full rules and a full ballot click here.

Ballots are due by MIDNIGHT APRIL 30TH!!!

(Winners will be announced over the course of 10 days in May)


ok that's the last of the BOD whoring.  Consider yourself alerted!!
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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tinyholidays

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30461 on: April 22, 2010, 04:33:10 PM »
ok that's the last of the BOD whoring.  Consider yourself alerted!!

I'm so alert as to feel even a little paranoid. Will I have watched enough films in time?? Will my students care that I don't bother grading their final papers?? Who will control my out-of-control question marks???

But thanks for taking charge with the reminder, ferris.

Verite

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30462 on: April 22, 2010, 05:57:42 PM »
I think the film crew - it is him making a film, right?

Wow, you know, I've never considered that.  That's insightful.  Will have to think about it more.
"When in doubt, seduce."
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Melvil

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30463 on: April 22, 2010, 06:22:05 PM »

L’Aîné des Ferchaux / Magnet of Doom (1963)

Dieudonné Ferchaux is a rich old banker who is in trouble with the law (for reasons I didn't entirely understand. Either it was supposed to be ambiguous or my iffy subtitles failed me). He hires a failed boxer (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to accompany him as his secretary while he flees France to escape imprisonment.

Where can you read more, you ask? Why, in the marathon thread, of course!

sdedalus

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30464 on: April 22, 2010, 06:42:43 PM »
I think the film crew - it is him making a film, right?

Wow, you know, I've never considered that.  That's insightful.  Will have to think about it more.

Isn't it Kiarostami making the film and the guy who plays the lead standing to the side and smoking a cigarette?.  Or am I misunderstanding you?

Of course, there's the fact that Kiarostami shot it one actor at a time, playing the other parts himself (he plays the driver when shooting the passengers, and vice versa).
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30465 on: April 22, 2010, 10:03:55 PM »
I need to get better about this marathon. Then again, I should probably be studying instead of watching all these movies.

The Night of the Hunter

Hey wait, how did a vampire film make it into the top 250?

flieger

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30466 on: April 22, 2010, 11:16:31 PM »

Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)

So basically, you have two dash-mounted cameras, mounted centre, and pointing at the driver and the passenger. Their conversations are recorded as they drive through the streets of Tehran, and that's it.

A woman drives, and she picks up various people. Her son, women going to and from the mausoleum, her sister, a friend, and a prostitute. Kiarostami gives us ten episodes of this, and gradually we build a picture of this woman's social network, and the troubles she has with her son, and, by proxy, with her divorced husband. All the passengers - except for her son - are women, and as the film goes on, we get this amazing exploration of women's relations with each other, and with men. Men, be they dead, divorced, newly found and loved, recently broken-up, or there purely for a money/sex transaction.

Even though the cameras are static, the film never is. The car zooms through the busy streets of Tehran, and you have these constant, random compositions seen out the side windows. All sorts of buildings fly by, cars drive past or up to this frame, their bonnets poking into shot, and often you see other drivers in the next lane draw up to the window on their way past, looking in the window, and at the camera. You get this sense of urban activity, of movement, of negotiation, just by looking past the seated protagonists. There's this moment where she drives by a beautiful, landscaped park, only briefly, and you forget to read the subtitles.

It's this stripped back, focused cinema that really hits you. Her son, Amin, is this angry, abusive child. A child of divorce, he's this seething, raging ball of resentment. The first episode is basically him constantly arguing, shouting over his mother, abusing her and telling her to be quiet. In the episodes that feature him, you're just aching for him to be in a good mood so that the abuse and complaints will at least ease a little. There's no cutting away to ease the torment, you're totally at the mercy of the camera.

The thing is, you're also forced to look, to really look. To study the face in frame. Every detail, every nuance of expression. You also have to piece the narrative together from the random, discursive dialogue. This is a film of radical simplicity, and radical intimacy. (Top 50 time, peoples...)

Bondo

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30467 on: April 22, 2010, 11:31:12 PM »
Well, this isn't what I like to happen during a rewatch of a film I held in relatively high regard.

Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)

[...]

I've dwelled a bit much on the negatives because that is what stands out as different from my first impression. There are still a lot of neat aspects here. The kodama, little forest spirits are another special Miyazaki design. The relationship of Ashitaka and San is pretty strong. But overall this just isn't a special film for me.

Rating: 3/5

roujin

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30468 on: April 22, 2010, 11:42:12 PM »

Le Pont des Arts Eugene Green, 2004

This dude understands, he understands. The world of artists and students, full of empty nonsense, better to live in silence and solitude. But, no, probably not. Same way of looking at the world, but now it's very much more our world. The world of the flesh, the world of the surly aesthete, something like that. Two couples, drifting part, seem parallel, but connect through the arts. The arts matter, the feeling matters, and although the  mocking of the academics who don't understand it and never will is a little dumb (as is the Gourmet detour), it remains true to its awesomeness all the way. I don't understand it myself. I don't understand why a face is so important. Do you hear the laughter? I don't, but I wish I did.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2010, 09:03:08 AM by roujin »

oneaprilday

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #30469 on: April 22, 2010, 11:51:54 PM »
I think the film crew - it is him making a film, right?

Wow, you know, I've never considered that.  That's insightful.  Will have to think about it more.

Isn't it Kiarostami making the film and the guy who plays the lead standing to the side and smoking a cigarette?.  Or am I misunderstanding you?

Of course, there's the fact that Kiarostami shot it one actor at a time, playing the other parts himself (he plays the driver when shooting the passengers, and vice versa).
I need to re-watch it now! I may be completely confused.  :(

 

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