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Author Topic: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid  (Read 7585 times)

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #20 on: January 13, 2020, 11:44:44 PM »
Shoeshine

I will understand this film when I've gotten to compare it to a few others of its time. But I definitely enjoyed it, even if it's a gut punch. Here's what I wrote (or rambled) about it on Letterboxd:

I've become fascinated by the work of Jafar Panahi and Abbas Kiarostami, who have cited the influence of Italian neorealism on their works. Shoeshine is the first Italian neorealist film I've seen, and one of its earlier works, and it's a real punch to the stomach. The two shoeshine boys at the center of the story were non-professional actors playing family-less Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi) and his buddy, from a family on the borderline of total destitution, Giueseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni). Vittori De Sica seeks to deliver just real life without much in the way of artifice. This is as what you see in some of Panahi's best work, The Circle and Offside, where he found people that had a look and could fit a part, which he's talked about in interviews and bonus features in DVDs. In the beginning of Shoeshine, the boys pinned all their dreams on owning a horse. They were poor but alive and had something like hope and a little bit of money. Watching their first ride on him as part of the family is joyful, indeed. But things fall apart when they get caught up in a robbery by some con artists and end up accessories. From here, you can see the insides of a cruel and inhumane juvenile detention center where very little is done to be sure their cases are pursued and that they can get out. The end is such a brutal expression of how fast such dreams can escape your grasp. And today, we sell poor children in the U.S.A. on needing an education to get by, but it's everything that happens between the hours they're at school that will ultimately secure their fate. In Vittorio De Sica's post-war Italy, it would seem that street kids got caught up in all sorts of misbehavior, living aimlessly. Pasquale and Giueseppe were actually two of the better ones, who got caught up in a scam. It makes their ultimate fates all that much harder to bear.

But I'd agree with Orson Welle's take on De Sica that, "The camera disappeared, the screen disappeared; it was just life." Whether it's The Circle, The White Balloon, Close up, or Children of Heaven; or even more recent films such as Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Capernaum, there is such deference paid to lived experiences by marginalized peoples in this brand of film. Now it's all about seeing more.

Next up in for this type of film, I'm going to go De Sica again, Bicycle Thieves.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #21 on: January 15, 2020, 03:03:06 PM »
Adaptation



Well the truth may need some
Re-arranging
Stories to be told
And, plain to see, the facts are changing
No meaning left to hold
.  - "Fascination" by The Human League

The real Susan Orlean is one brave soul. Being told that a book not even written yet is to be optioned for a film, must have felt like a huge leap into the unknown. So much pressure! If Kaufman wondered how to write a script for her book, Orlean must have also wrestled trying to build a book out of a magazine article. But it gets worse! The script comes her way and all of a sudden she is the lead in a thriller! There is a whole other movie contained in her reaction to this revelation. All the book tours and years of building a reputation of excellence and validity, get obliterated because Kaufman takes a left turn to escape his writer's block. No more will she be asked about her writing skills, but whether she is in fact the character on screen. Holy mackerel! How gutsy to put a stamp of approval on this story. And how perfectly good-humored. Never take oneself too seriously is almost as good of a take away as, You are what you love, not what loves you. Almost.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #22 on: January 15, 2020, 07:10:09 PM »
Never take oneself too seriously is almost as good of a take away as, You are what you love, not what loves you. Almost.

I've heard a reading of this line (the spoiler) as being a criticism of simple-minded sentimentality, considering which twin is uttering the line. I found it very moving, which I think is, according to the reading, an indictment of my sentimentality. I actually have it tattooed on my arm  ;D
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Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #23 on: January 15, 2020, 10:19:13 PM »
I've heard a reading of this line (the spoiler) as being a criticism of simple-minded sentimentality, considering which twin is uttering the line. I found it very moving, which I think is, according to the reading, an indictment of my sentimentality. I actually have it tattooed on my arm  ;D

:))

Count me in then! It wouldn't be the first time I was called out for being sentimental. I found the statement to be very empowering and put it on my cork board (the less painful way of preserving a quote ;) ).

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #24 on: January 16, 2020, 12:02:19 AM »
I've heard a reading of this line (the spoiler) as being a criticism of simple-minded sentimentality, considering which twin is uttering the line. I found it very moving, which I think is, according to the reading, an indictment of my sentimentality. I actually have it tattooed on my arm  ;D

:))

Count me in then! It wouldn't be the first time I was called out for being sentimental. I found the statement to be very empowering and put it on my cork board (the less painful way of preserving a quote ;) ).

One of those fine incidents where we, the viewers, show our own sense of agency!

Jenny Lewis made a song based on the line, "You are What You Love". She's not my cup of tea, but it's still a good listen if you liked the film or just that line.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

BlueVoid

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #25 on: January 17, 2020, 02:09:51 PM »
RASHOMON - It is nearly impossible for me to write anything that will do this justice or to articulate the countless paths I took in trying to decipher a meaning.  I even had to go back and rewatch to try and catch anything I missed in relation to the multiple accounts and outcomes.  "We lie to ourselves" and it doesn't matter as long as its entertaining.  The postmodern approach of story telling that permeates not only media and film, but of our very history and memory of ourselves.  What is truth?  It is often shaded by our beliefs of right and wrong, of what we perceive as truth.  As a student of law the truth is always left to the finder of fact, the jury decides who to believe and their wisdom gives us the facts and we, the academics of law impose the proper law or rule upon them.  We as the audience of RASHOMON are the jury, a kind of engaged spectator left to decipher a meaning or create our own truth of what happened.  A postmodernist would perhaps say there is no objective reality, the subjective world is all we have--is this the hell that the priest fears so much?  As the different versions of truth reveal to the priest that man may not inherently be good at all, rather selfish individuals who use a version of truth that casts them in a 'good light.'  "Maybe goodness is just make believe to forget all the bad stuff, easier to live that way." 

..

TLDR :)  MASTERPIECE and MUST find a place within my own top 10 films of all time.

Wow! Great writeup. This is very similar to my initial take on the film. When I revisited it a couple months ago some of that original zeal I had for it had faded, but I still think its a masterpiece of film making. Glad you liked it so much!
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BlueVoid

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #26 on: January 17, 2020, 02:13:07 PM »
After giving three films I'd watch, I went ahead and saw something different: Perfect Blue.

I had seen one film previously from Kon, Paprika, which is on my tentative Top 100 list. Perfect Blue also blew me away, but in a very different way. Of any animated film I have ever seen - and I don't think I'm being hyperbolic here - this is the closest to blurring the line between animation and real life. As someone who likes complex, thought-provoking non-superhero comics, this worked perfectly for me. Of all the prophetic visions of this film, the one that struck me the most was the pop idol-turned-actress Mima reading a blog that purports to be her own, about her daily life, and even incorporating that truth into her reality. The question about what your reality is, "Who am I?" as Mima repeats in the picture, not so ironically while she's actually acting, is as complex and elusive here, therefore probably closer to the truth, than I've see in most films that tackle existential issues. This is not to mention how thrilling and suspenseful the film is, especially in its second half. I found it simultaneously riveting and disorienting, and wasn't too surprised with I read that it highly influenced Darren Aronofsky in the making of Black Swan (another of my Top 100).

...

Well said! I haven't seen anything else by Kon, I really should check out Paprika...
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BlueVoid

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #27 on: January 17, 2020, 02:16:36 PM »
Shoeshine

I will understand this film when I've gotten to compare it to a few others of its time. But I definitely enjoyed it, even if it's a gut punch. Here's what I wrote (or rambled) about it on Letterboxd:

I've become fascinated by the work of Jafar Panahi and Abbas Kiarostami, who have cited the influence of Italian neorealism on their works. Shoeshine is the first Italian neorealist film I've seen, and one of its earlier works, and it's a real punch to the stomach. The two shoeshine boys at the center of the story were non-professional actors playing family-less Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi) and his buddy, from a family on the borderline of total destitution, Giueseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni). Vittori De Sica seeks to deliver just real life without much in the way of artifice. This is as what you see in some of Panahi's best work, The Circle and Offside, where he found people that had a look and could fit a part, which he's talked about in interviews and bonus features in DVDs. In the beginning of Shoeshine, the boys pinned all their dreams on owning a horse. They were poor but alive and had something like hope and a little bit of money. Watching their first ride on him as part of the family is joyful, indeed. But things fall apart when they get caught up in a robbery by some con artists and end up accessories. From here, you can see the insides of a cruel and inhumane juvenile detention center where very little is done to be sure their cases are pursued and that they can get out. The end is such a brutal expression of how fast such dreams can escape your grasp. And today, we sell poor children in the U.S.A. on needing an education to get by, but it's everything that happens between the hours they're at school that will ultimately secure their fate. In Vittorio De Sica's post-war Italy, it would seem that street kids got caught up in all sorts of misbehavior, living aimlessly. Pasquale and Giueseppe were actually two of the better ones, who got caught up in a scam. It makes their ultimate fates all that much harder to bear.

But I'd agree with Orson Welle's take on De Sica that, "The camera disappeared, the screen disappeared; it was just life." Whether it's The Circle, The White Balloon, Close up, or Children of Heaven; or even more recent films such as Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Capernaum, there is such deference paid to lived experiences by marginalized peoples in this brand of film. Now it's all about seeing more.

Next up in for this type of film, I'm going to go De Sica again, Bicycle Thieves.

I love De Sica. Every film I have seen by him cuts right down to the core of humanity. I never though about the connection of Iranian New Wave to Italian Neo-realism, but I can definitely see similarities. Excited to see how you like Bicycle Thieves.
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BlueVoid

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #28 on: January 17, 2020, 02:18:39 PM »
Adaptation

The real Susan Orlean is one brave soul. Being told that a book not even written yet is to be optioned for a film, must have felt like a huge leap into the unknown. So much pressure! If Kaufman wondered how to write a script for her book, Orlean must have also wrestled trying to build a book out of a magazine article. But it gets worse! The script comes her way and all of a sudden she is the lead in a thriller! There is a whole other movie contained in her reaction to this revelation. All the book tours and years of building a reputation of excellence and validity, get obliterated because Kaufman takes a left turn to escape his writer's block. No more will she be asked about her writing skills, but whether she is in fact the character on screen. Holy mackerel! How gutsy to put a stamp of approval on this story. And how perfectly good-humored. Never take oneself too seriously is almost as good of a take away as, You are what you love, not what loves you. Almost.

I never knew any of this! Fascinating!
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Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: BlueVoid
« Reply #29 on: January 18, 2020, 10:40:52 AM »
One of those fine incidents where we, the viewers, show our own sense of agency!

Jenny Lewis made a song based on the line, "You are What You Love". She's not my cup of tea, but it's still a good listen if you liked the film or just that line.

I'm listening to it now. The film's quote is a great subject for a song and she really ran with it, in a dark way! My favorite line is,

"And I'm in love with illusions
So saw me in half"

She doesn't mince words! :D