Author Topic: The Top 100 Club (Sept 2015 - May 2017)  (Read 329193 times)

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #20 on: August 31, 2015, 01:02:59 AM »
Nope, too early. Disqualified. 8)

I'm feeling a bit self-conscious now, having just loved A Summer's Tale because I felt it captured real dating conundra from my life...apparently I've not progressed past high school (actually, that's probably pretty accurate). I think it's good proof for subjectivity and the power of place in life compared to objective measures of filmmaking to determine a film's ultimate success.

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #21 on: August 31, 2015, 01:45:37 AM »
Actually, for the first half of the film, in his conversations with Margot, I thought of you, Bondo.  Feeling left behind, not sure what the other person is thinking, and she gives sound advice-- wait it out, it'll happen in time.

It's the second half that is "high school" and, if it helps, probably college as well.  Everyone playing at love, but not really knowing what it is.  Everyone making promises that may end within the next hour depending on who one is with.   To me, grown up love is committed love, not showing up a week late, breaking up one day and making up another.  Not flirting with one person while trying to be committed to another.  By the time I was 21 I knew that this "love" was nothing of the sort.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

PeacefulAnarchy

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2132
    • Criticker reviews
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #22 on: August 31, 2015, 01:52:28 AM »
It is all so very high school... and perhaps that's part of the point.  Do any of these people really understand anything about love?
Yes it is and no they don't. Do most people, especially at that age, really understand anything about love? I think what separates it from the usual "high-school" romance is the genuineness of the characters and the slight distance the film provides. The film is showing us their immaturity, but it's not reveling in it or agreeing with it. It may seem like everything to them, but we get the benefit of a wider scope that lets us see the other options and possibilities. The romance and anxiety over faithfulness is the surface content. It's the depiction of a person getting so caught up in their own thoughts and ideas that they miss the most obvious things right in front of them that lies at the heart of the film. The paralyzing indecision that you know is going to end up worse than any of the rational actions you're so thoughtfully considering but too scared of choosing the wrong one to make a decision. Rohmer captures that anxiety and indecisiveness perfectly.
everyone seems to expecting something out of their intended which they aren't ready to give themselves.
I also like this aspect because it's such a patently absurd expectation when viewed in a film, but when you're living it it's so easy to make excuses for it. To lie to yourself about what you expect, and about what you're willing to give, and get frustrated at the world for not matching your expectations instead of doing some work to help it be what you want it to be. The film applies all this to romance, but I think these are things that are applicable in a lot of aspects of life.

Even though I watched this film after I had gotten past much, though not all, of those issues myself, it's a vivid reminder of the traps I hope not to fall into again. It helps of course that I genuinely care about the characters and enjoy the film for the drama it presents, but it's the emotional core that makes it a favourite.

I much preferred My Night at Maud's.
I don't blame you, I love Maud too. All Rohmer films are, at their core, about human decision making processes in the face of interaction with other humans. They are variations on a theme with different characters at different places in their lives presented with different situations. Maud speaks to me as well, but from a different place.

I'm sorry it didn't go better, but I'm glad you got at least a little out of it. Good luck with your month away.

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #23 on: August 31, 2015, 02:11:45 AM »
I wasn't really upset at the film, I was just hoping to get more out of it than I did-- more than a teenage rom com.  This is a classic case of one person getting more out of a film than another, even though the content they understood was similar.  So it goes.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

DarkeningHumour

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10453
  • When not sure if sarcasm look at username.
    • Pretentiously Yours
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #24 on: August 31, 2015, 03:30:29 AM »
quote author=DarkeningHumour link=topic=13471.msg816091#msg816091 date=1440920156]
It has gotten very hard for me to get my hands on movies so I do not know what I will be able to watch. I do have Kiki's Delivery Service on me at the moment as well as Two Days One Night possibly so I will be able to meet the month's requirement. I will try to get something from the Top 100 though.

I love that you have Garden State on there.
I'd forgotten Kiki's Delivery Service was on there. Haven't seen that in a decade so I may have to rewatch. It's my favourite Miyazaki.
[/quote]

You see, now I am going to have to review it just to explain to you how it is not Miyazaki's best and it is inferior to Mononoke.
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

https://pretensiouslyyours.wordpress.com/

DarkeningHumour

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10453
  • When not sure if sarcasm look at username.
    • Pretentiously Yours
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #25 on: August 31, 2015, 03:47:18 AM »
A Summer's Tale

It is all so very high school... and perhaps that's part of the point.  Do any of these people really understand anything about love? 


Do any of us ?
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

https://pretensiouslyyours.wordpress.com/

DarkeningHumour

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10453
  • When not sure if sarcasm look at username.
    • Pretentiously Yours
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #26 on: August 31, 2015, 03:51:21 AM »
It's the second half that is "high school" and, if it helps, probably college as well.  Everyone playing at love, but not really knowing what it is.  Everyone making promises that may end within the next hour depending on who one is with.   To me, grown up love is committed love, not showing up a week late, breaking up one day and making up another.  Not flirting with one person while trying to be committed to another.  By the time I was 21 I knew that this "love" was nothing of the sort.

I think you are not allowing for the possibility that maybe they are not so much playing at love as they are playing at simple seduction. This is coming from someone who has not seen the movie but who has very much experienced college and high school.
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

https://pretensiouslyyours.wordpress.com/

Corndog

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17025
  • Oo-da-lolly, Oo-da-lolly, golly what a day!
    • Corndog Chats
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #27 on: August 31, 2015, 09:06:42 AM »
Probably still not in a position to commit to rejoining, but I do love following along and want to tag this thread for the time I do return as a participant.
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

chardy999

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3550
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #28 on: August 31, 2015, 09:12:20 AM »
Woman in the Dunes - Hiroshi Teshigahara (1964)



A school teacher treks through a remote desert in Japan looking for insects and misses the last bus back to town. He only has three days off so is grateful to the villager who offers accommodation for the night. ‘More time to look for insects tomorrow’ he exclaims. His accommodation is in a giant pit and he must descend a rope ladder to get down. The walls of the pit are made entirely of sand, and if this is starting to sound dodgy, you’re onto something.

A young woman who appears to live or work in the pit prepares his meal and he’s off to sleep. The next morning the rope is gone and the man slowly learns that he is a prisoner. And the woman is stuck there too.

The simplicity of this construct is deceiving: the film defies description. I had always seen only that one shot – the carnal embrace, and thought this a fish-out-of-water romance – and it is, but it’s also a thriller, a claustrophobic horror film and it’s bold and brash and acutely zeroed in on the human condition.

We watch the man try to escape the vast pit and the sand collapses underneath him time and again. The woman we sense gave up trying a long time ago as she dutifully shovels sand every day.

The absurdity of this situation is established early, along with the physical limitations, so we can forget it and watch the relationship evolve through opposition, desperation, lust and understanding. Mundane domesticity surrenders to intense eroticism as two people, both proud and naïve in their own ways, find comfort in each other.

When he asks her ‘do you shovel sand to live, or do you live to shovel sand?’ it feels like he is asking us as well and while he cannot accept her overt submission he does develop empathy and perspective. And while she yearns for companionship, she is aware of their incompatibility and takes solace in warm exchanges and acts of decency. This film, likes its primal characters, is feeling all the time, and I loved it.

Straight into my Top 100.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
- Groucho Marx

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: The Top 100 Club (v2)
« Reply #29 on: August 31, 2015, 11:28:03 AM »
A Summer's Tale

It is all so very high school... and perhaps that's part of the point.  Do any of these people really understand anything about love? 


Do any of us ?

I think once a person has married, had a child and raised them for a bit, there is some inkling of love, at least.  For most people, either the life-love or the child causes love to wash over them, and transform them and they have a good idea of what it means.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky