Author Topic: Top 100 Club: Teproc  (Read 23014 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #110 on: October 01, 2020, 01:35:19 PM »
I think I started it at some point and got bored and never finished it. I know I've seen the opening scene.

1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #111 on: October 01, 2020, 02:13:28 PM »
I can't think of a single thing that was made better by Zach Snyder.

Teproc

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #112 on: October 01, 2020, 02:26:23 PM »
I can't think of a single thing that was made better by Zach Snyder.

Marvel's financial success.

(I actually remember liking Watchmen a lot... haven't since it since the theater though, a little scared to revisit it)
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1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #113 on: October 01, 2020, 02:30:50 PM »
I own Watchmen. I love Watchmen. It's still not better than the graphic novel.

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #114 on: October 03, 2020, 08:02:34 AM »
Graphic Novel couldn't convey the emotion I got from the film, so I never finished it.

Bondo

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #115 on: October 03, 2020, 03:27:34 PM »
Ogres

This is kind of a film of extremes. It follows a theatre troupe doing pop-up shoes across France while existing in kind of their own society. Spending time with them can at times be great fun as they have this big communitarian sort of thing going across multiple generations and are free-spirited and creative. One might fantasize about a certain sense of freedom this life might bring. But on the other hand, there are times when the head of the troupe feels like a cruel task-master and it is all rather intense and draining. And of course, spending that much time in and around a small group of people tends to fester drama as we do here with infidelities and jealousies funning rampant and threatening to tear the whole thing apart.

One question I asked myself is would I be interested in watching the show the troupe puts on, and I'm pretty sure the answer would be decidedly no. Though they at once point talk about the difficulty of maintaining the story when trying to replace or cut around someone who left, from the various scenes we get, I can't say that it looks like much of a coherent story. It is a melange of moments or skits, generally very melodramatic. In getting into the behind the scenes stuff, the film does do better than the performance within, though it was definitely a mixed/uneven experience and as ever I withdraw from big public scenes and interpersonal nastiness. Checks the box on my Adele Haenel completionism tendencies but I wasn't pulled in enough to contemplate this as a top 100 kind of film. Teproc, curious to hear from you what about it spoke to you.

Teproc

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #116 on: October 03, 2020, 04:47:22 PM »
Ogres

This is kind of a film of extremes. It follows a theatre troupe doing pop-up shoes across France while existing in kind of their own society. Spending time with them can at times be great fun as they have this big communitarian sort of thing going across multiple generations and are free-spirited and creative. One might fantasize about a certain sense of freedom this life might bring. But on the other hand, there are times when the head of the troupe feels like a cruel task-master and it is all rather intense and draining. And of course, spending that much time in and around a small group of people tends to fester drama as we do here with infidelities and jealousies funning rampant and threatening to tear the whole thing apart.

One question I asked myself is would I be interested in watching the show the troupe puts on, and I'm pretty sure the answer would be decidedly no. Though they at once point talk about the difficulty of maintaining the story when trying to replace or cut around someone who left, from the various scenes we get, I can't say that it looks like much of a coherent story. It is a melange of moments or skits, generally very melodramatic. In getting into the behind the scenes stuff, the film does do better than the performance within, though it was definitely a mixed/uneven experience and as ever I withdraw from big public scenes and interpersonal nastiness. Checks the box on my Adele Haenel completionism tendencies but I wasn't pulled in enough to contemplate this as a top 100 kind of film. Teproc, curious to hear from you what about it spoke to you.

"A film of extremes" is a good description. Those are big personalities, sometimes unpleasant and sometimes charming. It's apparently largely autobiographical, as the director grew up in a family that led a theatre troup, and as such she basically grew up on the road. To answer why it's a personal favorite of mine, I should say I have five elder siblings and approximately a billion cousins, which means I respond to these kind of extended family-like groups of loud people who can get very loud and unpleasant as well as very warm and loving in a somewhat personal way, and I thought the characters here were very well-drawn and complex, though I can certainly see why one wouldn't want to spend that much time with then. That all makes it a film I like a lot, but what makes it a favorite is the ending, with everyone starting to sing gradually. Singing like this is not something we do all that often in my family, but we have and we still do occasionally, and I found this scene deeply touching because of it, because it seels that sense of belonging, for better or worse, that is so key to these characters. I don't cry much when watching movies, but this scene in particular really gets to me.

Glad you watched it. It's not a film I expect most people to love because of the elements you described and because it hits me on a very personal level, but I think it has plenty to offer even without that, which I think you highlighted well.  :)
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Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #117 on: October 05, 2020, 12:04:48 AM »
Jaws

During this time of COVID, especially living in a place still highly affected with a large number of anti-mask Covid-deniers, you can draw parallels to any even slightly analogous situation of human folly, especially via hubris and ignorance, and so we have Jaws. Here is a man-eating shark threatening a beach/resort community, where the new police chief is blowing the whistle, but the mayor will bluster, lie, and deflect to keep his beaches open and the money flowing. There is no man-eating shark, it was a boating accident. Or...Look the shark was caught, see! Everything's good!And, of course, people die because of it. Were it more closely aligned to our current situation, the mayor would have at least dipped a toe in the water and had his foot bitten off, but I digress...

The film is essentially broken into two parts, one on land/at the beach and one on the water. The second part is more successful than the first. In the first part, you have your political tussle and safety v. prosperity or science v. prosperity conflicts. You have your idyllic American 4th of July tormented by a force of nature. Spielberg does love torturing those types of settings after all, bringing unease to our seemingly most tranquil areas. While there is a sense of tension during this first part, sometimes I have to remind myself of it, as I feel I'm supposed to be more gripped than I actually am. I think that's my own personal reaction to the Jaws mythos, and in that sense, it's kind of a let down.

The portion of the film at sea, where Brody, Quint, and Hopper seek out some hand-to-hand against the great white shark is much more intimate, funny, and exciting. You have three character types rubbing up against each other in this small sea vessel, and while two were the "good guys" back on land, now they all seem infected by the hubris that they are the ones to take care of this job. Here we have honorable intent, wisdom and knowledge of the sea, and modern science teaming up to get one over on nature, and as could be predicted, it's not as cut-and-dry of a conflict resolution as these guys might have hoped for. And while this may well be just a really high-grossing creature feature, I do think the shark, as with other elements in different suburban and idyllic settings in Spielberg films, represents an emerging threat or a difficult realization on the horizon for the safe, secure, and protected. Some may get out alive, but there will be casualties. The film's climax is fairly pleasing, although I think it would've been more effective were it more grim. But then I remind myself, this is a blockbuster film that nibbles around the edges of acceptability for the family, though is obviously not for small children, so I'm probably not going to get an Aguirre-style ending.

I should note that many Spielberg and Spielbergian projects get their hooks into me because there is something about the setting and family structures that I find familiar, yet I also see the flaws that Spielberg usually exposes through an adverse situation. The same occurs here, but I don't find anything all that interesting or compelling about Brody's family or the townspeople, most of whom seem fairly anonymous. In E.T., Poltergeist, and Gremlins, you have familial and friendship bonds that are multifaceted, sometimes upon a backdrop of despair and disappointment, where an external element throws the protagonist's lives into a conflict that leads them to remember the most important priorities in life, and they are all super fun in the process. With Jaws, I think something similar is attempted, but bonds among the primary family and the people around town are established in a far more perfunctory manner, if at all. There is certainly some humor sprayed around, some ribbing and wise-ass remarks, to keep things light as you know something terrible is around the corner, but overall, I did not care a great deal about any of the characters in the film. Far as the situation is concerned, to me it was just about restoring the status quo, if you want to get into any deeper meaning; but you could also just convince me that it's an action/horror creature feature and really the point is the cool humongous shark going H*A*M and the visual effects. Even as that...I'd much rather the dinos getting busy in Jurassic Park. Or, even better, watch Bong's The Host.

Even though I'm not crazy about Jaws, well, I saw it! As something to do with my buddy and my dad on a Sunday night, it did work out quite nicely. It's just a matter of if I actually like it vs. if I enjoyed watching it with good company. The former, probably not; the latter, for sure.
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Teproc

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #118 on: October 05, 2020, 02:39:15 AM »
I agree with a lot here, namely the Covid parallels that seem overwhelming now (I rewatched it during lockdown with my nieces and nephews) and the second part being better than the first... though I obviously think it's the whole that makes it function that way. I agree Brody's family is not that developped, but I think he his, and Scheider is the emotional center of the film, having to face his fear à la Stewart in Vertigo, but for the public good as opposed to his selfish desires. And in the opposition between the manly adventurer (the always great Robert Shaw) and the desperately-wanting-to-be-seen-as-manly scientist, he's the one who's not in it for the glory, he's in it because he wants to do a good job. That's what heroism looks like to me, and that's where the film works best. The "sharing the scars" scene is the film's highlight, though of course John Williams's score and the tension created by the shark (the use of the yellow lifeline thingies is genius) are what keeps the narrative going.

I'm actually not a big Spielberg fan (especially not of your own favorite there), maybe because I don't think his obsession with the family unit leads to good writing. I much prefer 70s Spielberg, who is using his cinematic talents for thrills, finding the emotional grounding in the individual.
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Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: Teproc
« Reply #119 on: October 05, 2020, 08:11:04 PM »
I'm actually not a big Spielberg fan (especially not of your own favorite there), maybe because I don't think his obsession with the family unit leads to good writing. I much prefer 70s Spielberg, who is using his cinematic talents for thrills, finding the emotional grounding in the individual.

On that note, I still need to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I don't know about the other Spielberg's of that decade, but I figure Jaws and Close Encounters are the big ones.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire