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Author Topic: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob  (Read 19534 times)

jdc

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #120 on: December 02, 2020, 08:33:43 PM »
I see Shirin is on YT at the moment, looks like something I could love or hate
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #121 on: December 02, 2020, 09:23:08 PM »
Yes.

I will try to reply this week. Most of my forum time is just a couple of minutes here and there.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #122 on: December 05, 2020, 01:00:15 AM »
I will try to reply this week. Most of my forum time is just a couple of minutes here and there.

Just going to say...watching Days of Heaven was a big deal to me, the reaction was so unexpected. Not like I didn't know it was a lauded film by an acclaimed director, such knowledge usually doesn't impact me positively, if anything, slightly slightly slightly negatively. But I know with your belief system, it probably means something different to you than it does me, and am kind of wondering what the contrasting points of view between us would look like. Will say, I have the urge to watch it again this weekend, or at least during the winter holiday.
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Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #123 on: December 07, 2020, 12:47:30 AM »
Paris, Texas



I hear you Ry Cooder, there, serenading the sagebrush. Your guitar is as akin to desolate roads as the photographs and filming of Wim Wenders. It's a match made in dusty heaven. That alone is plenty of rustic artistry, but dialogue creeps into play after a time and builds on the mood and weaves in comprehension. I'm trying to keep it at arm's length, all this prairie pathos, for I don't want to associate with this depth of consequence and loss. I want to be able to say, "This is beyond my ken." But who am I foolin'? These are relatable human sorrows, so this film isn't going to let me off that easy. It's better to concede and instead say, "I see your pain and regret and even though I haven't walked your particular roads, I understand you. All of you."

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #124 on: December 13, 2020, 11:44:11 PM »
STALKER (1979) - I have enjoyed films with long silences and takes that often are meant to be thought provoking, such as THERE WILL BE BLOOD or long, strange adventures in ERASERHEAD or APOCALYPSE NOW, but here with STALKER this was a bit of a trudge. It is likely I missed something, some great pondering that I never quite caught the gist of.  In fact I initially thought this was a commentary on Chernobyl, only to find out this film was made a number of years before STALKER. I am not well read in Russian literature, but I did see glimpses of the prison of the mind that Raskolnikov from CRIME AND PUNISHMENT suffered as does our protagonist and guide into the Zone called the Stalker. He cannot escape this prison because he has been imbued with some wisdom to lead people into this area that appeared suddenly and is dangerous, but holds a secret room that will grant the lucky explorer who finds the room the wishes of his desire.  The Stalker knows where this room is and how to avoid the dangers of men guarding the Zone and the strange (possibly alien) mind traps inside the Zone. The long sequences that often focused on the back of the head of the Stalker or his companions were hard to really get into and I tried, but I felt like it was intentionally dull or abstract. There are some interesting ideas of how the Stalker is cursed to know where the room that unlocks dreams is located, but if he uses it himself he is doomed. Still this knowledge and ability also imprisons the Stalker and poisons the relationships he has in the real world. Maybe it is a thought exercise on how selfish we all really are and are imprisoned by our own desires and motives which will be all of our undoing (and our own prison).  I think there are some film influences that probably touched the moviemakers I mentioned above Lynch, Anderson, Coppola, but I found it hard to really get into.  I really enjoyed SOLARIS that had some similar themes, but I think I enjoyed the story more than the mysterious Zone.
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Junior

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #125 on: December 14, 2020, 08:43:21 AM »
What helped me unlock Stalker to some extent was the parallels with The Wizard of Oz. There are both formal and thematic parallels there, and it helps me see what's happening beyond all of the philosophizing. Knowing that it's likely based on Roadside Picnic, a novel about the remnants of an alien visitation helps too.
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colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #126 on: December 14, 2020, 12:45:15 PM »
It's interesting to think of it from the perspective of Woz especially with the use the change of color once they enter the Zone. It reminds me of ANNIHILATION a lot too but every time the laid down in the water didn't inspire anything. Maybe I'm locked out because I kept waiting for some reveal that never occurred or am a prisoner of flashy filmmaking and movie monsters?
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #127 on: December 16, 2020, 10:57:41 AM »
Fret not, I am here to reply to the reviews I didn't miss. Thank you all for participating. I wish I had engaged more at the time but November was a rough month for me.

Ashes and Diamonds
Hum, I never had an issue with the dubbing or acting. Maybe it's something I missed more because it's a foreign film. While I do think the performance carries a lot of the film, I also think the visuals do a great job of setting up the feeling of what it's like to try to live in an occupied country. There are some haunting bits that stick with me in this film that are like few other films I've seen. (The church scene, and some of the conversations at the bar come to mind.)

Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
Before shooting, Wenders went on a scouting trip where he photographed Western America from California to Texas, which is the geographic journey the character takes. I certainly think the cinematographer along with Wenders eye for still photography go a long way in creating the vividness and expansive landscape of some of these moments. It's therefore surprising that the most memorable scenes are the ones that are shot closest to the characters.

I had never thought of it as a revisionist Western, but that does make sense in the final act and in the way he begins the film reentering civilization to make amends after wandering the desert.

Days of Heaven

Glad you found so much to enjoy here. I will say I think your right about who this film is really about by the end. I've seen Days of Heaven a lot of times now and it's hard to come to terms with the ending if it isn't about that character. It's funny that you found the addition of the plot frustrating because I always thought it was somewhat incidental in a way. It's there, and it drives character conflicts, but there's a sense in which the film watches the plot flow over it as it moves onto other things. If Malick's later years are any indication, most people actually hate it when he gets away from having a cohesive plot as Knight of Cups and Song to Song tends to be regarded as his two worst films and have the least cohesive plots, if you could even call what happens in those films a plot.


I'll catch up with more later. Thanks again, everyone who participated.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #128 on: December 16, 2020, 09:08:07 PM »
Glad you found so much to enjoy here. I will say I think your right about who this film is really about by the end. I've seen Days of Heaven a lot of times now and it's hard to come to terms with the ending if it isn't about that character. It's funny that you found the addition of the plot frustrating because I always thought it was somewhat incidental in a way. It's there, and it drives character conflicts, but there's a sense in which the film watches the plot flow over it as it moves onto other things. If Malick's later years are any indication, most people actually hate it when he gets away from having a cohesive plot as Knight of Cups and Song to Song tends to be regarded as his two worst films and have the least cohesive plots, if you could even call what happens in those films a plot.

Days of Heaven has lingered with me since I watched it. It could be a top ten discovery of the year, and I've seen like 250 new-to-me movies this year.

I actually think I'll be lining up some of his stuff up for consumption in the new year, including a rewatch of Tree of Life. I think I'm in a place where I can understand and vibe with that film better, more than when it first came out.

Maybe I'll like Knight of Cups and Song to Song, then? I really liked A Hidden Life, and I feel like that one was kind of glossed over when it came to the best films of 2019. There is definitely a plot there, but also a lot of meandering, and all of the meandering is just so beautiful, I was OK with it. Do you think because Malick is a bigger name, as compared to filmmakers that have made films that have far lighter plots, like a Victor Erice or Claire Denis, that he catches more flack for diverging from more well-worn plot structures?

I think this all kind of gave me a fresh start with Malick.
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sam the Cinema Snob
« Reply #129 on: December 16, 2020, 09:28:18 PM »
Well, Malick has a leg up on that he's been around longer and his style of going out and shooting nature in the moment around his characters is something no one else has really captured. He also for a long time only made a film every so often so his films are an event.

I also think he's got a pacing and style that is so enrapturing and unique. Even his films not set in nature are shot with a sense of awe and wonder.

 

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