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Author Topic: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons  (Read 75829 times)

Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #510 on: November 21, 2017, 12:13:06 PM »
I guess it is meandering, though it didn't strike me that way exactly, because Marlowe is always investigating: he just gets interrupted a lot, but all of it is relevant to the case. It does have a hangout feeling that I'm told is common in Altman's films, I like that.
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Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #511 on: November 21, 2017, 07:01:06 PM »
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)



Adam & Matty's takes (starts at 41:47)

One of the rare films in this whole endeavor that I've already seen, and I think I stand by my assesment of it as Scorsese's best film, of the 9 I've seen anyway. Even if one prefers Goodfellas or Raging Bull or whatever, Mean Streets seems like the ultimate Scorsese film. Aside from some technical imperfections (the sound mixing is generally not great), he's fully-formed here, with his obsessions in full display: the catholicism and the guilt that goes along with this particular brand of it, New York and more specifically Little Italy and the mafia culture. This is also true stylistically, particularly in his use of contemporary music to score the action.

I suppose this is generally a common thread of New Hollywood that I haven't adressed much, but it's been quite noticeable in this marathon. There's the obvious: The Graduate and its iconic Simon & Garfunkel score, Easy Rider and it succession of music videos in the first half, and this, which has an average amount of music-dominated sequences for Scorsese, which is to say a lot. But Midnight Cowboy has the recurring Harry Nilsson song, The Long Goodbye has its variations on the eponymous song, and even Jules et Jim has Le tourbillon de la vie. I don't remember music in Bonnie and Clyde I suppose ? In any case, my point is that the use of music is clearly one of the many stylistical innovations from New Hollywood, and Mean Streets feels like a culmination of that trend. Along with the home-footage opening credits and the way Scorsese writes these characters and shoots New York, it creates this incredibly strong sense of time and place, in a way that I don't think that even a Goodfellas doesn't, perhaps because Scorsese is looking in the past there, whereas this is entirely of-the-moment.

On that point, the musical choices are particularly on-point in that there's a healthy mix of very current needledrops (Scorses's beloved Rolling Stones getting the most iconic one with Jumpin' Jack Flash) along with canzone and 50s stuff like The Chantels's I Love You So which opens the film. It's specific, and personal. Of course the performances, especially by Keitel and De Niro, also play a huge part. It's been quite the pleasure seeing people like Nicholson and De Niro in their breakout roles throughout this marathon, though the performance I'm most impressed by here is Keitel's. The film is not subtle about his inner demons (hah, because he spends all this time in hell-ish looking places, get it ?), but his performance is. You can feel the pain in realizing that he understands that in order to get where he wants to be, he has to both compromise himself and abandon someone like Johnny Boy, but he can't quite do it because he knows it's not right. But is it ? The conflict between his cultural values and his religious values is constantly playing out right there on his face, and it's deeply tragic. Here gain I think of Goodfellas and how little I care for anyone in that film: aside from Michael (and even him I don't hate half as much as Henry Hill), they're all endearing in some way. They're not quite lost yet, and therein lies the tragedy.

8/10
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #512 on: November 22, 2017, 05:10:57 AM »
I hate that film. It challenges Silence for the spot of the most unendurable Scorsese movie. DeNiro's character is a repugnant mess who makes every scene he's in an ordeal, and Keitel's unending moral constipation is nothing short of ridiculous. My eyes were rolling too fast to notice anything much about the style.
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Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #513 on: November 22, 2017, 02:06:21 PM »
I hate that film. It challenges Silence for the spot of the most unendurable Scorsese movie. DeNiro's character is a repugnant mess who makes every scene he's in an ordeal, and Keitel's unending moral constipation is nothing short of ridiculous. My eyes were rolling too fast to notice anything much about the style.

I get De Niro being annoying I guess (though I find him charming), but Keitel ? He might be my favorite Scorsese character overall. I think of him and Gabriel Byrne in Miller's Crossing as different versions of a similar character, struggling with the necessity to compromise their morals to achieve their ambitious goals. Charlie is less ambitious, but in the end he wants to conform, even if it'll eat him up inside, and he'll either become a sociopath (like Byrne) or a failure.
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Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #514 on: November 23, 2017, 08:57:45 AM »
Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)



Adam & Matty's takes (starts at 40:04)

Badlands is one of those films that it feels a bit pointless to write about, because of how sensory an experience it is. I suppose that's true of most Malick films, though my experience with him is still very limited (I've only seen his post-Tree of Life work, so not exactly the most acclaimed part of his oeuvre). It's a gorgeous film, and not just the time spent outside of civilization either: one of the most striking moment in the film is Sheen and Spacek's first scene together: there's something momentous and unique about the moment that you can think back to every time you might be wondering what motivates these characters.

Adam & Matty overplay the mystery of these motivations here I think: they see each other as a way to escape from their boring (for her) and depressing (for him) world. Kit is the driving force of course because the reality he's escaping is much bleaker simply by virtue of him being older (and possibly affected by time spent at war - I kept thinking Vietnam before realizing it was set too early for that, maybe Korea?), and she goes along because she's fascinated by him. It goes rather far yes, but I never found myself questioning their motives: they want to be with each other, and they'll do anything for or at least Kit will, and Holly is fine going along with it for a while. It's kind of a reverse Summer with Monica. With more murder.

Though it is very different stylistically from the other films in the marathon (obvious connections with Bonnie and Clyde notwithstanding), it is connected to them in many ways. There's the rejection of mainstream society and there's the way it plays with the medium, with Martin Sheen doing his best James Dean impression and getting called out on it (well, not so much called out as complimented). It's pretty striking, and from there it follows almost too easily that he's a rebel who found a cause in Holly.

I suppose what differenciates it from latter-day Malick (again, bearing my limited experience with him in mind) is that the cinematography is a supporting player rather than the stars: Spacek's face is what sticks with me more than the landscapes. There are two fascinating performances here that anchor the film: again this is a tragedy, and those only work if you care about the characters. Great score (and soundtrack), too.

8/10

*which is why The Killing of a Sacred Deer doesn't work for me, come to think of it.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2017, 09:06:01 AM by Teproc »
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #515 on: November 23, 2017, 09:06:28 AM »
Any Malick review that does not mention wheat porn is automatically invalidated.

No rating?
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Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #516 on: November 23, 2017, 09:42:15 AM »
Any Malick review that does not mention wheat porn is automatically invalidated.

No rating?

Rating added. I don't think this has much (any ?) wheat porn. I suspect it comes into play more with Days of Heaven. There is a sense of admiration for nature, but it didn't seem to be the main focus to me.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #517 on: November 23, 2017, 09:53:09 AM »
There are a few wheat-like shots of the plains once they run away, as I remember.
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Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #518 on: November 23, 2017, 09:57:16 AM »
There are a few wheat-like shots of the plains once they run away, as I remember.

Yes, but I guess when you say "wheat-porn" I think more of the "running your hands through wheat fields" variety.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #519 on: November 23, 2017, 10:07:54 AM »
I said wheat porn, not wheat masturbation.
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