Author Topic: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)  (Read 111679 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #260 on: July 31, 2017, 12:45:30 PM »
I'm not going to be able to get a review in for Sam until Wednesday at the earliest.  My apologies, this month has been crazy, and I have family in town through then.  If you need to knock me down a place, I understand, but I will definitely get a review in.
Life happens. I'm glad July has been my month in part because I've gotten few movies in this month.

DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #261 on: July 31, 2017, 12:53:09 PM »
I've noticed that you almost never rate anything above an 8, so I'm guessing 7.5 is pretty high praise from you? I'm glad you liked it, it's my #2 film. It is indeed those small moments that really make it. I have a rather big crush on Madhabi Mukherjee myself.

The movies at the bottom of my Top 100 rate 8/10 so yeah, I consider it a pretty high grade. That is in part because my rating system is skewed towards rating most things between 5 and 7 or 7.5, which really is an insane way to use the 1-10 spectrum.

If I had to do an estimate, based on the last two years I think I must have given ratings of 8/10 or above to 40 to 60 movies, which would account for about 10% of all the movies I watched in that time. This year I am at 22 at the moment, so maybe I am underestimating those numbers.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #262 on: July 31, 2017, 01:06:52 PM »
I am not even going to list the ones I have not watched because it would just get ridiculous.

Things that interest me:

The Best Years of Our Lives (Top 10 pick)
The Last of the Mohicans (it is getting more and more unlikely that I will ever read the novel)
The Deer Hunter
To Have and Have Not (Bogart plays a Frenchman, whatever)
Searching for Bobby Fischer

Will take recommendations.
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MartinTeller

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #263 on: July 31, 2017, 01:24:06 PM »
To Have and Have Not (Bogart plays a Frenchman, whatever)

He doesn't

DarkeningHumour

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #264 on: July 31, 2017, 01:28:24 PM »
Oh, okay, I misunderstood the blurb then.
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jdc

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #265 on: July 31, 2017, 11:06:33 PM »
The Human Condition Pt1

There are two versions of this film, an International Version broken into 3 long parts and a Japanese version broken into 6 smaller parts.  Other than the break points, I believe they are the same and since Sam didn't specify which version, I have decided to cheat and watch Part 1 of 6 instead of Part 1 of 3.  Mostly just due to lack of time at the moment during this round back in Singapore.

It was actual Oldkid that first brought this to my attention a few years ago and I parked it on a list of movies to find.  While in the UK, I happened to find the Blu-ray version for sale which is not available to the US so I snatched it up even though I had no way to watch it in the UK. 

First thing, I think this movie is made for Oldkid, or at least the online, version of him I have in my head.  He may even be Kaji, the idealistic, humanist that is trying to introduce different and new methods at an Iron Ore mine in Japanese occupied Manchuria in the 1930s.  Kaji approach to creating better working conditions and given proper food to the Chinese workers goes against the company's method whenever it has to increase iron quotas.

To help increase capacity, the military offers up 600 prisoners on a few simple conditions.  They shall not interact with the "free" workers, they shall not be allowed to escape, and if they die in the process, so be it.

Kaji is given the responsibility of the POWs which puts him in direct conflict with what he believes is right and the company and army, who simply do not care.  This conflict often causes Kaji to have to compromise as he looks to do the best that he can, knowing those in charge will come down much harder if they fail. 

Trying to balance between the two puts him in a losing position, the POWs have lost trust as he broke a promise that was not his to be able to keep as well as the company and army, that simply only want orders followed without a care to the actual POWs.  In the process, Kaji withdraws, snaps easily and takes his burdens to his home which creates difficulty in his marriage.

This is raw and brutal in how they depict Japan during this part of history, which perhaps is the most surprising.  I am likely to get through Part 2 of 6 in the next week and then will have to wait until September to finish the rest.  While it is broken in parts, I am not sure if it should be considered 1 film or 3 (or 6), but it certainly needs to be watched in parts as I am not sure emotionally it could be binge watched.

I can see it being potential Top 100 material from the first 2 hours but think I will consider it on the whole and not the parts.
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Junior

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #266 on: August 01, 2017, 12:40:55 AM »
I'm back.

Stalker

How come nobody told me this was a horror film? Well, maybe it's my fault, since I tried to avoid spoilers for a movie I suspected would be a unique experience. I wasn't wrong. The movie is poetic in the way that people get upset at, slow and full of impenetrable visuals married with philosophical ramblings. But it's also poetic in the sense that it is like poetry, built on images and details and not really a story as much as a flow of feelings and a sense of place. This is the stuff that makes it a horror film, the way that the Zone (which mysteriously appeared one day and caused its inhabitants to disappear and is now a trap-filled ruin that has nature mostly taking over human constructions) feels like the fourth character, and it's not a benign one. Though nothing really happens, it feels like something might at any moment. The characters walk in straight lines, wary that their footsteps might doom them to an incomprehensible death. The camera follows behind, one of my favorite kinds of shots, and the characters often turn to look back at the camera/the others. It's paranoia 101, and it's so interesting here juxtaposed against the sheer beauty and ruin that the Zone represents.

The three characters are a Writer looking for inspiration, a Scientist looking for truth, and a Stalker, looking to get them where they're going. Tarkovsky, of course, doesn't let it lie at that, and the paranoia builds as they start to reveal their deeper selves. This is all fine and dandy, story-wise, but it isn't really a story movie. It's a Zone movie. The camera seems to take up the point of view of the Zone. It's a point of view that rarely blinks as many of the shots are long and often contain several recompositions (a wide shot turns into a close up as a character enters the frame from below, for example). So you get absorbed into the world of the film, you succumb to its slow flow of time and space. You see the way the world works and recognize that it isn't at all like our world. And it's a little terrifying and a little exciting but mostly you're just waiting to see if you can get out of this camera setup all the while knowing that the next one will be just a little bit more twisted as the characters and you delve deeper and deeper into the Zone. Once Stalker has its grip on you (and for me that happened with the shot of the family at the beginning in the bed), it doesn't let you get away easily.

I've said several times that this isn't a story movie, but there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so to speak. Somewhere in the Zone is a room that will give you your deepest desire once you enter it. Seems like a good deal, except maybe it isn't. The final half an hour or so becomes less about the Zone and more about the nature of humanity, desire, happiness, faith, and, most interestingly for me, cynicism. That this movie which spends so much time on what seems like an absurd quest to an impossible destination ends up as (so far as I can tell) an argument for the power of belief (and cinema to create that belief, because what have I been talking about except the very pinnacle of believing in an unprovable thing) is what moves this from a high spot on my next top 100 to a likely top 10 spot. It is like that other movie you're probably all tired of hearing me talk about, Fanny and Alexander, in that its own technical prowess is not only a tool for the story being told but also the essence of the story itself. Stalker is a truly amazing film experience that demonstrates exactly why movies are magic.

Asuperplus, as if it could have been anything else.
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oldkid

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #267 on: August 01, 2017, 01:58:01 AM »
Silence

Frankly, I have too many thoughts, all a jumble in my head, needing processing. So instead of a review, I propose,

A series of questions after watching Scorsese's film, Silence:

How is it that so many Christians struggle with the question of theodicy when Jesus actually promises his followers suffering? What do most Christians think the purpose of suffering is?

Is this going to go on the list of films I love but are too difficult to watch again?

How is it dangerous to export a belief system, if it is not forced?

How many of the details of this story is based on the real severe persecution of Christians in Japan?

Is missionary work simply colonialism?  Is evangelism simply cultural manipulation?  If so, how is that different than any other propaganda?

Who is this brilliant cinematographer who accomplishes such beauty with natural frames? (Oh, it's Rodrigo Pieto)

Is it wisdom for a religious person to accept questions instead of concrete faith?

What sort of sick individual would put this film on his top 100?

Can we obtain an hour and a half version of this movie that I can show in every church to get conversations started?

Is it coincidence that Liam Neeson is in this film and in The Mission which has to do with Jesuits set in South America about a hundred years after Silence?  Does the Jesuit priest in question have a time machine?

Is the padre hearing the voice of God or simply creating an excuse to allow him to end suffering?

Is it possible that Scorsese is my favorite religious director?


4.5/5
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Bondo

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #268 on: August 01, 2017, 07:07:00 AM »
Starting pixote's months with a few short reviews of short films:

The Dot and the Line
Reading pixote’s description, Flatland came to mind, and apparently it was an influence here. Thankfully, that book’s abhorrent aspects did not translate and what we are left with is a charming, fairly simple romantic parable. It made me empathize with a straight line.

The Scarecrow
Certainly my new favorite among Keaton shorts. Just a fun, ingenious short. The early scene at the one-room house should be experiencing a renaissance amid the tiny house craze.

Plenty of other options for me to consider the remainder of the month. The bolded ones are my priorities, but I'm open to suggestions, especially from the ones marked as available at my library.
Two Women (LIB)
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (LIB)
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (LIB)
Fong Sai Yuk
A Generation (LIB)
Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
Let There Be Light (NFI)
Breaker Morant (LIB)
Ashes and Diamonds (LIB)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (LIB)
Nothing But A Man (LIB)
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried
Johnny Guitar (AP)
Ask Me, Don’t Tell Me
It All Starts Today
San Pietro (NFI)
Night of the Demon
Goodbye Mr. Chips (LIB)
Nabbie’s Love
Fanny (LIB)
Le Trou (LIB)
Great Expectations (1946) (LIB)
Like Grains of Sand
Murder by Contract
Mother Joan of the Angels
All About Lily Chou-Chou
All The Cats Join In
Louisiana Story (LIB)
The Phantom Carriage (LIB)
A Walk in the Sun
The Way to the Stars
Marius (LIB)
Village of Dreams
Ballad of a Soldier (LIB)
Eureka

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: The Top 100 Club (Episode III)
« Reply #269 on: August 01, 2017, 07:35:16 AM »
My viewing was split over the 2 months and both Sam and pixote have My Neighbour Totoro on there lists, so this is for both of you.

My Neighbour Totoro

Over the last couple of years I have made several attempts to watch this movie and have fallen asleep most of them. I just keep picking the wrong time to watch such a peaceful movie. This movie is the personification of peaceful, a bit like Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring. Yes a movie is not a person, so personification is definitely the wrong word, but whatever. The simpler animation style combined with the delightful and light story work well. Although I would like to see a better quality animation version.

Full of wonderful characters, with the Cat Bus being my favourite, what strange mind could think of a bus that is a 12 legged cat.

Sigh, contentment.

Rating: 82 / 100