Author Topic: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things  (Read 14320 times)

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #20 on: August 16, 2017, 12:53:22 AM »
I really appreciate you including this description of the film in your review. I've never investigated the film for myself but I've always steered clear of it because... it just looked like one of those kinds of movies.  Other examples would include El Topo or 8 1/2 or Persona, none of which I've seen but which I imagine are the same way.
I will say your point is sound, but each film you mentioned is poetic in a different way.

El Topo is slow in places, largely bizarre with visuals and philosophical ramblings that are remarkably on the nose. I think you could get a good feel for its weirdness watching any 10 minute section. Stalker only works with the full commitment of time to let its power accumulate.

8 1/2 is not slow, but its rambling narrative makes it seem like it will never end. Every 10 minutes is a new story, a new woman, a new philosophical rambling about the same subject. I believe you would better enjoy Rob Marshall's musical adaptation Nine, and not just because it's 20 minutes shorter and 40 years more recent, though that will certainly help.

Persona is kind of slow because it's minimalist, but it's also only 80 minutes long. Impenetrable visuals are heavily concentrated to the opening and a strange bit in the middle. The philosophy does ramble - expected with 2 characters, one of whom isn't talking - but the thoughts are deeper, more challenging than the other films.

Teproc

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3529
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #21 on: August 16, 2017, 02:52:40 AM »
I'd say both 8 1/2 and Persona are in very different categories than Stalker... I don't know that I'd recomment 8 1/2 to you (smirnoff), but I think Persona could work, there is esoteric stuff in the beginning, but for the most part it's a chamber piece with two great actresses.
Legend: All-Time Favorite | Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Poor  |  Bad

Letterbox'd

chardy999

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3550
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #22 on: August 16, 2017, 07:04:18 AM »
Good stuff Junior. Will follow along. Stalker!

Let's watch Lawrence soon. I need the 4 hour push too.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
- Groucho Marx

Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #23 on: August 24, 2017, 03:45:12 PM »
Breathless

I missed a step. Somehow, in the space between going to a lot of movies in my childhood to today when I own what some would call too many Criterion and other movies, I missed the French New Wave. I knew of it, of course, but my first-hand experience with it was almost entirely lacking. I could see in movies like Submarine and Reservoir Dogs a kind of shared reference point and I could figure out what that reference point was by seeing what those kinds of movies had in common. However, when that actual reference point would come up in conversation, I’d just nod and smile. I started fixing this last year with The 400 Blows, which I absolutely loved. I picked up Breathless and Hiroshima Mon Amour recently thanks to that movie and we’ll see how it works out for me.

Breathless is one of those movies where it feels like you’ve seen it even when you’ve missed it for 29 years of your life. The details are intriguing and pulled me along when things felt a little rote. For example, the plot is such a straightforward genre type that when the movie focuses on that part it feels like almost any other crime thriller. The bits in between those standard plot beats are what make Breathless a movie to pay attention to, even though I didn’t end up loving it. There is a part of the film that ends up being almost a third of its 90 minute length which might have been five or ten minutes in another movie. It’s the seduction scene that takes place almost entirely in one room and features both Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo at the height of their strange mix of chemistry and philosophical musings. In what amounts to a short film on the topics of purpose, meaning, and desire, the two of them dance around each other wonderfully. Here are the beginnings of the Before Trilogy except I don’t particularly care if the two end up together or not. But then there’s 20 minutes of “necessary” cat and mouse policing and kind of standard moral conundrums that make the genre what it is and I start to disengage.

The ending is really great, though, especially after Seberg’s Patricia decides to turn her lover in for his murderous past. The consequences of this play out in two long shots that first map the dissolution of their relationship and then his bloody (almost comically dragged-out) end. Here Godard breaks from what has become the film’s most important feature–the jump-cuts that almost accidentally revolutionized filmmaking–and because the rest of the movie is full of moments spliced together which unmoor the audience to some degree, the long takes that close the movie brings everything crashing back down to earth. It’s a great effect and it’s these shots that I’ll remember from this movie, along with that audacious seduction scene. I’m not sure I’ll revisit this lovingly in the future, but I’m glad I watched it (and own the disc which features a lot of great supplements that I will seek out as I continue to learn more about how movies work. I’m glad I’m finally filling in this hole in my movie knowledge, and I’m excited to check out Hiroshima Mon Amour to see if Resnais can bring the power of Night and Fog to a feature film.

B
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

Teproc

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3529
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #24 on: August 24, 2017, 03:54:06 PM »
Great review. I certainly thought of that scene when watching Before Sunrise recently. Hiroshima mon amour is an interesting one, curious to read your take on it.
Legend: All-Time Favorite | Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Poor  |  Bad

Letterbox'd

Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #25 on: August 24, 2017, 04:01:03 PM »
Thanks! I'm excited to check Hiroshima Mon Amour out. It's the only other FNW movie I have on the list at the moment, I think. I guess maybe the Demy movies might qualify as an offshoot?
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

don s.

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2025
  • You had me at "Hello, here's $50."
    • my movie collection
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #26 on: August 28, 2017, 09:04:44 PM »
Like many of you, I'd guess, I own a good number of movies that I haven't actually watched yet. I did a count yesterday and for me, that number lies at around 99, about half of which are Criterion blind-buys. I'm tired of it! So now it's time to watch all of them.

Six years ago, the embarrassment of not having watched* a good portion of my DVD library impelled me to make a list of all of my unwatched titles in the Notes app on my iPhone. This was partly to give me a handy, portable watchlist and partly as a reminder not to watch "Law & Order" reruns instead. Despite this effort, progress had been slow. In the meantime, I kept buying DVDs and blu-rays, compounding the problem.

So this year I set a New Year's resolutionesque goal to knock out one title per day from my unwatched backlog. As of today, I've watched 250 titles (in addition to a good chunk of the discs I've bought since Jan. 1, which don't count toward that total). That's about 10 ahead of my goal to date. I have ~70 purchased-prior-to-2017 titles yet to watch, including two Criterion blu-rays that have mysteriously turned yellow and won't play — and three non-U.S. region DVDs: I hope my greymarket region-free player still works (I haven't gotten around to hooking it up to my new TV yet). …

[ * ] By "watched" I mean that I have clear memory of watching the film all the way through and would recognize the basic story, if any, and how it ends. For example, there are plenty of movies I've watched this year that I had started and not finished; now I can cross them off the list with a clear conscience. This is the same standard I use for checking movies on ICheckMovies.com, by the way.
My TV ain't HD / that's too real

Teal | Green | Lime Green | Orange | Red

DarkeningHumour

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10453
  • When not sure if sarcasm look at username.
    • Pretentiously Yours
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #27 on: August 30, 2017, 11:07:04 AM »
Reading along, no one's tried to grab my butt yet, very disappointing.
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

https://pretensiouslyyours.wordpress.com/

Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #28 on: August 30, 2017, 01:47:29 PM »
One movie a day is a bit much for me, don s., but color me impressed at your dedication! And your collection!

Happy to have you along, Dh. Even if I'm still jealous of your recent Demy big screen viewing.
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

don s.

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2025
  • You had me at "Hello, here's $50."
    • my movie collection
Re: Hold On To Your Butts: Junior Watches All the Things
« Reply #29 on: August 30, 2017, 11:51:41 PM »
One movie a day is a bit much for me, don s., but color me impressed at your dedication!

Actually, adding cinema outings (average ~1 per week), avid Turner Classics viewage, premium cable channels, Amazon video, Netflix and other miscellaneous sources, I've been averaging 2.75 movies per day (see Movies Watched in 2017 for details).
My TV ain't HD / that's too real

Teal | Green | Lime Green | Orange | Red