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Author Topic: 1SO's Journey Through the History of Cinema as Selected by Filmspotters  (Read 92794 times)

Sandy

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Re: 1SO's Journey Through the History of Cinema as Selected by Filmspotters
« Reply #380 on: November 24, 2012, 12:56:24 PM »
Well expressed 1SO. I hadn't really thought about watching this before, but I just might now.

My boat is sinking fast from your top 20! :D

smirnoff

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Re: 1SO's Journey Through the History of Cinema as Selected by Filmspotters
« Reply #381 on: November 24, 2012, 01:06:17 PM »
I don't know how much more or less I might've enjoyed the Director's Cut, which was his recommendation. This was longer, but never felt long

The first time I watched this it was the director's cut and I accidentally watched side B without realizing. Afterwards I thought, hey that didn't feel long at all! :)

A few years later I tried to watch the director's cut in its entirety, and failed to finish it. :-\

I'm impressed you made it through an even longer version and didn't feel it!

1SO

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Re: 1SO's Journey Through the History of Cinema as Selected by Filmspotters
« Reply #382 on: November 24, 2012, 02:11:52 PM »
My boat is sinking fast from your top 20! :D

Maybe by then I'll expand to a Top 25. I could go to 35 at this point and it would all be good films (inc. your other 2 recommendations.)

The first time I watched this it was the director's cut and I accidentally watched side B without realizing. Afterwards I thought, hey that didn't feel long at all! :)

I read that after watching the film. Almost used one of your screenshots.


I'm impressed you made it through an even longer version and didn't feel it!

You're just asking to land in the Quoting Out Of Context thread.
I kept going back and forth on which version to watch. Antares suggested the Director's Cut, but I think that's so he wouldn't have the guilt of suggesting a really long film. This year I've watched The Human Condition, Satantango, The Best of Youth, Les Vampires, and the Miniseries cut of Scenes From a Marriage. Hopefully next year I'll finally get to Shoah, Berlin Alexanderplatz, War and Peace and all of "Breaking Bad".

smirnoff

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Re: 1SO's Journey Through the History of Cinema as Selected by Filmspotters
« Reply #383 on: November 24, 2012, 03:42:40 PM »
:))

I guess it's worth the risk. If you like what you're seeing then more is usually a good thing.



Every available inch is needed to store food and supplies. (These details made me question more recent submarine films which had room for fish tanks)

lol, ya.

I think what can really improve those "water leak" scenes you mention is when they take the time to explain (in specific detail) what's broken, how it could be fixed, and what's available to fix it with. When the scene is nothing but a bunch of water spraying everywhere and people running around tightening random nuts and bolts it gets boring pretty quick. I remember Das Boot was often quite good in that respect. Every major leak what a unique event which I was engaged in trying to solve, because they gave enough detail to make it interesting. Did you find that to be the case as well?

1SO

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Re: 1SO's Journey Through the History of Cinema as Selected by Filmspotters
« Reply #384 on: November 24, 2012, 04:26:30 PM »
I didn't. It was just a basic way of raising the stakes. First we have 1 leak. Then during the major skirmish there are a few leaks and in the final battle the U-boat is leaking all over the place. They talk about a plan to get all of the water out of the ship in one move and we see that the plan works, but I don't know how they did it. I'm not looking for a lesson in hydro-physics, but for all the detail they provide I always wondered why nobody thinks twice when somebody climbs down from up above and gallons of water flood the main compartment every time. I wanted to know how that water drained out and how the electrical systems were able to function. (Why put the hatch so close to all of the critical systems?)

smirnoff

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Re: 1SO's Journey Through the History of Cinema as Selected by Filmspotters
« Reply #385 on: November 24, 2012, 04:48:09 PM »
These are good question. :)

My memory may be off. I watched a lot of sub movies in a short period of time, so maybe I'm mixing them up.

Antares

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Re: 1SO's Journey Through the History of Cinema as Selected by Filmspotters
« Reply #386 on: November 24, 2012, 09:02:21 PM »
I kept going back and forth on which version to watch. Antares suggested the Director's Cut, but I think that's so he wouldn't have the guilt of suggesting a really long film.

Ding...ding...ding!!!!! You are correct sir! I love the uncut version, but I thought maybe being a re-watch, you would have dismissed it rather quickly if it were too long.
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1SO

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Possession - Prelude
« Reply #387 on: November 24, 2012, 11:20:58 PM »
Marathon Update



Possession
"You're always right. But it's difficult, don't you understand? It is difficult.
I didn't want it to happen but it happened and now..."


in today's hipster world anything that universally despised would generate a cult following.

jbissell

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Re: Possession - Prelude
« Reply #388 on: November 25, 2012, 12:45:24 AM »
Marathon Update



Possession
"You're always right. But it's difficult, don't you understand? It is difficult.
I didn't want it to happen but it happened and now..."


in today's hipster world anything that universally despised would generate a cult following.

I'll respond more when you post more thoughts, but I definitely won't feel the need to defend this one the way I did with A New Leaf. It was certainly the one of my four that had the most potential for outright hatred, but I'm very interested in reading the depths of your dislike.

1SO

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Possession
« Reply #389 on: November 25, 2012, 01:35:35 AM »
Marathon Update



Possession
"I met a man who loved everything, and he died in a flood of shit."

Quote
"The film was also very controversial when first released, and heavily edited for distribution in the United States. After an initial limited theatre release in the United Kingdom, Possession was banned as one of the notorious Video Nasties, although it was later released uncut on VHS in 1999. It gradually developed a minor cult following among arthouse aficionados."

"To call Zulawski's style operatic would be misleading, as that term implies a certain degree of refinement; between the camera, which hurtles breakneck through scenes as if hotly pursued, and the actors, who rarely speak a line of dialogue if it can be shrieked, the overall effect comes closer to emotional Grand Guignol."

"Mr. Zulawski is nonetheless an auteur to be approached with trepidation. His movies are seldom more than a step from some flaming abyss, with his actors (and audience) trembling on the edge. Typically shot with a frenzied, often subjective moving camera in saturated colors that have the over-bright feel of a chemically induced hallucination, these can be hard to watch and harder to forget. "

Quote from: roujin
The film's first half comes on like Scenes from a Marriage as directed by Lars von Trier and played at 2x speed, a lacerating depiction of disintegration both marital and psychological, while the latter half steadily morphs into Repulsion by way of Cronenberg's The Brood

I wonder if an at least passing interest in other more outwardly expressive and less naturalistic inclined art forms (modern ballet for example) makes it easier to accept these performances.

It's not like I wasn't prepared. I'd read articles and listened to podcasts like Left Field Cinema. I'd seen Isabelle Adjani's train station freak out a couple of years ago. Even in context there comes a point where I'm no longer watching a character but an actor who keeps going long after director Andrzej Zulawski should have cut. I'm okay saying that Zulawski is doing something different, something I'm not accustomed to. I'm having a hard time - especially after only one film - saying this is good stuff.

It's better than The Woman, so at least there's clearly a level of stylistic competency at times that places it above trash. There's every reason to expect my knee to jerk at the hysterics, the bug-eyed acting and the increasingly non-sensical plot. Even removing some garish shots of actors staring too close into the lens and behaviors that seem to exist just to make the scene different. (I refer you to the above photo.) Even then there are simply too many scenes that bring up too many questions.

Take for example the scene where a man enters an apartment looking for his gay lover only to end up dead. Why does he react the way he does to the malformed tentacle creature on the bed? Why does he get closer to it? (It's Prometheus all over again.) Why does he turn his back on it? Why does he never ask Adjani any questions regarding the creature? Or even react when she claims to have been making love to it all day? He fires his gun at point blank range, so why does it do no good? I'm willing to accept that much of this movie exists on a more metaphorical level, a look at marital breakdown similar to Anti Christ. However, in a handful of scenes like this one Zulawski comes off as a painfully inept filmmaker. Why is it okay to take hack-y Stephen Sommers to task for his abundance of weak CG effects instead of a coherent narrative, yet Zulawski is praised for making actors shriek their way through his film?