Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684291 times)

Teproc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4340 on: March 14, 2020, 06:40:49 AM »
Le doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962)

I think I like neo-noir more than the actual thing. I guess this is right on the verge of being an actual noir in terms of era, but it doesn't fit the traditional definition by virtue of being French. It's more than that though: neo-noir, or at least the ones that I like, are all about mood. A mood we certainly associate with classic noir, but that is never as polished and overwhelming as it is in later films such as this one. A key element there is the score: actual noirs have classic Hollywood scores, maybe a bit jazzier, maybe a bit darker, but still. The score here is a mix of that (specifically made me think of Herrmann's Hitchcockian scores at times) and actual jazz, the kind you could hear in Parisian cafés in this era because of African-American jazz players who briefly emigrated there. There's a scene near the end which takes place in a small bar - in which our protagonists look like they've essentially succeeded - and there's a pianist playing in the background. He's not playing anything particularly ominous, but it adds so much to the scene by somehow heightening it.

The plotting here feels like a nod to the complexity of some noir plots, while still being pretty easy to follow. The way Melville uses ellipses is masterful: the first few times you go with it because that's just part of the cinematic language, but at some point you begin to understand that he is delibaretly concealing key information, without Melville having to do anything in particular, and it becomes this playful, Hitchcockian interaction with the audience without any break in the film's reality. The way it morphs from that to a tragedy is also quite remarkable, and the ending, while in some ways pretty typical and expected for a noir, is excellent.

And then there's the performances. Reggiani is excellent as this ex-con who never recovered from his time in prison and can't trust anyone anymore, while Belmondo is at his most charismatic here, which is saying something. The whole films kind of feels like Melville saw A bout de souffle/Breathless and went "No Jean-Luc, I'll show you how to make an hommage to American film-noir, and how to make Belmondo as iconic as Bogart", and succeeded*, as illustrated by the scene in which Belmondo seduces a rival criminal's wife just by spending five minutes with her and being Belmondo, essentially. It shouldn't work, but it does. Piccoli shows up in a small scene (as said rival criminal) and that's another great scene, as he clearly realizes what is about to happen and is torn between acceptance and bargaining.

Melville has the patience to make incredible thriller setpieces and make them memorable, which is essential for the very first scene in the film, as understanding exactly how it went down ends up being pretty important. Same with the burglary. Without the clarity of action you get from these scenes, the twists and turns of the plot would feel confounding and artificial. Lesser filmmakers make these things feel like they tricked you unfairly: masters like Melville and Hitchcock make it seem like you should have known all along.

9/10

*To be clear, A bout de souffle does a bunch of other interesting things and Belmondo is also excellent in it, but this specific vector of it (the love letter to American noir) is what I'm talking about.
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Junior

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4341 on: March 14, 2020, 07:19:10 AM »
Wendy

What's weird is that if you play this back to back with the Luc Besson movie where ScarJo turns into a USB stick the two films then transform into a stirring drama about a woman who loses her dog.
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1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4342 on: March 14, 2020, 10:37:18 AM »
The Descent 8/10

There's a part where they have the character who is studying to become a doctor explain what these creatures are and how they function. It's weird because at that point it really doesn't need to be explained. For an otherwise pretty smart movie this is a really dumb moment. Fortunately the rest of the film remains excellent and exciting. Falls off a bit in the home stretch. I'd like to go back now and compare it to As Above So Below, but that one is scarier so I have to psych myself up.
I like the explanation. It's brief and doesn't get into a detailed backstory, just enough to explain who they are and how they became creatures.

Did you notice this moment:

We see what looks like a shot of our explorers spread all around the giant cave...


only to have the figure on the far left crouch down, revealing it's one of the creatures.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4343 on: March 14, 2020, 10:53:42 AM »
I love The Descent but watching it made me realize I'm claustrophobic and I may never be able to watch it again.

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4344 on: March 14, 2020, 09:16:23 PM »
Did you notice this moment:

We see what looks like a shot of our explorers spread all around the giant cave...


only to have the figure on the far left crouch down, revealing it's one of the creatures.

Funny you should ask that. When I started the movie I specifically told myself that I should be on the lookout for glimpses of things in the background (since now I knew what would be coming).

And I still missed it. :))

I'm glad that's in there though because I did find the reveal, or the reveal as I saw it, rather abrupt. The first time see the creature clearly is a moment after the group has passed into a new area, and the camera hangs back and a creature comes into view. I found it a bit strange to jump from seeing some weird slim dripping down the wall to suddenly having a clear, up-close profile of the creature. But then to have this scene in between bridges it better so that's good. Wish I'd noticed.

The scene when the character first glimpses it with her flashlight in the distance is one of the better moments.

I love The Descent but watching it made me realize I'm claustrophobic and I may never be able to watch it again.

Oof, tell me about it. Seeing them worm through tight passages was the scariest part. Then getting stuck, and the dust... I shook my head through that whole segment. I was legit having to calm myself down. I for sure will never go into a cave like this.

Junior

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4345 on: March 15, 2020, 01:08:44 PM »
Army of Shadows

JPM is a cool director. Le Samouraï and Le Cercle Rouge are movies about Colleen's, looking cool and being cool. But my favorite of his is Le Silence de la Mer, his full length debut. In it, a French man and his daughter house a Nazi during the occupation and almost everything happens under the surface. Tensions and passions are there, but they are necessarily suppressed. It, too, is a cool film, but cool by way of not hot. That's the kind of cool Army of Shadows is.

A story about resistance fighters in Vichy France, Army of Shadows does have tense mission scenes, betrayals, and firing squads, but none of them rise to the level of melodrama. I love melodrama, but I also love a movie with a sense of itself, a movie that plays it cool if that's what is called for. And it is what's called for here. Perhaps a little slower paced than I'd like, the movie, however never bored me. Under the cool surface is both a deep admiration for these resistance fighters and an understanding that their efforts are likely futile.

It isn't a reassuring or hopeful film, but it is a testament to what feels necessary in times of great strife.

A-


Deadwood: The Movie

Such a film, made a decade after the show it is a continuation of has ended, will likely never live up to fan expectations. Part of that is structural. You don't have nearly as much time to develop the various character or thematic threads that made the original series so compelling. Another part is emotional: you know, as a viewer, that no matter how great it is to spend more time in the company of these characters and locations you first enjoyed years ago, it will end far too soon.

David Milch, writer and show runner of Deadwood returns to give Al Swearengen and company a proper send-off. It isn't triumphant nor tragic. The big bad, George Hearst, can't possibly be defeated here, so we know that the film won't give us closure on that front. Any victory, whether over a failing body or an evil capitalist, is temporary. But it is still a victory. The movie doesn't end the story, not does it end the characters within it. But it does give us a little time to say hello again before asking us to say goodbye. And that's pretty CINECAST!ing great as far as I'm concerned.

A-


Ricki and the Flash

It's no Rachel Getting Married, even though there are a heck of a lot of similarities. Mainly, I just didn't much care for Streep's titular character. She felt uneasy in the role to me. Demme still had it here, though, as the musical numbers still have some of the verve of a Stop Making Sense (if not the ability). And the ending still made me tear up. So well done there.

B-
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smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4346 on: March 15, 2020, 04:16:27 PM »
Re: Deadwood

Nicely put, Junior. Because of the time and distance and other constraints I think this project was always going to have a glass ceiling, and the film hits it. What more can you ask for. Would a full length season have been any better after so long? I think it unlikely.



The Class (2008)

Difficult film to write about since it has no particular agenda except to observe. It restricts its observations to the goings on of a school, and primarily one class. You cannot say it is unsuccessful. You see limitations, and necessities. Regression and progress. Hope and bleak prospects. Every day is a new rubik's cube to solve and too little time and engagement to complete the job. The next day you find that someone has scrambled it and you start anew. When you add up all the days in the year it seems that something has happened, maybe something has been learned by some students. It's a hands off depiction that I don't think even a documentary, no matter how discrete, could come close to replicating. A really fresh and engaging experience.

8/10

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4347 on: March 15, 2020, 07:54:59 PM »
Detachment (Tony Kate, 2011)

I was inspired to revisit this on the heels of watching The Class. It's the opposite approach... Kaye twists and squeezes every pressure point in his aims to explore the abstract concept of detachment. That it happens to take place in a classroom seems almost arbitrary (as is the comparison between the two films really). The idea he's exploring is something vast and systemic. It's characters can understand it in a vague way, but they are also trapped by it. I think it's a more ambitious film in that it tries to nail down something that's extraordinarily difficult to wrangle. I don't know if it's a complete success... but it is completely engaging like a well shot car wreck. I would love to hear more people's reaction to this film (I'm sure 1SO would also). Brody's performance is fantastic.

8/10

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4348 on: March 15, 2020, 08:28:01 PM »
I'll be watching that one again for my newly launched Best of the Decade Marathon.

Jeff Schroeck

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #4349 on: March 16, 2020, 07:23:30 AM »
I finally finished NETWORK after 5 years (watched half back then but had to return the disc before I could finish, got it again this weekend.) I knew the story itself was kind of absurd based on the common knowledge of it but I didn't know it was as dreamlike as it is. Aside from the break from reality built into the story that Beale brings out with his own gradual breakdown, there are hazy shots, like Diana getting up to get an award, in which she has a sort of floating vibe, and the Ned Beatty character giving his speech to Beale is pure cartoon nightmare.

 

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