Author Topic: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time  (Read 50812 times)

MartinTeller

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #170 on: May 03, 2020, 08:57:08 AM »
You didn't address the two inevitable questions about Blade Runner:

1) Which cut do you prefer?
2) Do you think Deckard is a replciant?

Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #171 on: May 03, 2020, 12:53:44 PM »
1. I have only ever seen the Final Cut.
2. I like the ambiguity that leads us to ask this question more than taking one side or the other. To me, it makes more sense thematically if he's not one, and in the book, he's not. I see the evidence on both sides, I treat him in my review as if he isn't, so I guess I'll go no. However, the existential issues just shift a little if he is, and don't fundamentally change, so I don't have major stakes in this question.
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Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #172 on: May 04, 2020, 04:08:57 AM »
Rio Bravo
HOWARD HAWKS, 1959
3 STARS OUT OF 5

If anything has changed in my estimation of Rio Bravo, considering this is my second viewing and the first was a month and a half ago, it might be that I previously underestimated how wholesome it is. It's a strange thing to say for a film with so much gunplay, and, when all is said and done, so much killing, but my buddy who dropped by (the one allowed to come through during quarantine) said it felt like a "family western". Considering the faces, including Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson, who I was schooled on the first time around, as well as the many considerations that had to be made to portray a wild west without making it too wild, it may not be too far off-base. It's bloodless, sexless, and curse-less; the good guys are clearly defined, if also a crew of misfits, on the side of law-and-order, and win at the end with a flourish. I had a lot of fun with it this second time around, as I did with the first, but just feeling a little more aware of it, especially since I've seen Blazing Saddles and The Wild Bunch in the interim.

John Wayne and Walter Brennan are major highlights, both thriving in roles simply made for them. Wayne always seems to be carrying a few skeletons around with him, as if John T. Chance, as a sheriff, always carries a bit of irony in it. Brennan as Stumpy is just A+ comic relief throughout. Every word that comes out of his mouth is golden, and the banter between Chance and Stumpy is always bitter and hilarious. It's too fitting that Stumpy turns up to throw the dynamite that Chance shoots and blows up to finally bring the sinister Burdette clan to its knees at the climax. They've been doing that in one form or another the entire film.

There's more to Rio Bravo than the banter, though that's my favorite part. There are also the action scenes that propel things forward and bring them to the final shootout. I will not lie, I'm a little more conflicted by the random bodies being blown away this time around, no matter what side they are on. This is very much a film about a western town under siege by a lawless clan, so you'd expect John T. to get a little creative, for bullets to fly, and Hawks and his crew piece it together with continuity and pace. The Dean Martin character, Dude, is a bit more of a wildcard. He's a fairly standard redemption story that caught my interest a little more the first time. This time, I still rooted for him when he decided to take the lead pursuing a killer at a saloon full of Burdette's people, but the scene where he pushes the whiskey away once and for all is fairly contrived. Like everyone else, he's at his best when he's bullshitting with Stumpy. Feathers as John T.'s much younger love interest is portrayed in a playfully seductive manner by Angie Dickinson, and is a bit of a mystery for much of the film outside of her devotion to the sheriff. She came into town and John T. fits her description to a handbill he has fairly quickly, adding another misfit to the pot, but her presence isn't all so consequential to the direction of the film.

Rio Bravo is entertaining fare and has played an important role in my foray into westerns. It's fluid, energetic, and has at least a few memorable personalities. However, I've found myself getting a lot more out of the out-and-out high-minded The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the revisionist The Wild Bunch, or the satirical Blazing Saddles. Even the depravity written on much of Once Upon a Time in the West rings truer. Then, it feels a little harsh to bury Rio Bravo, though other westerns expose it as a bit too wholesome for what it is. At its best, it's a fun, engaging ride with a crew of flawed, but still obviously good guys putting up for their sense of right and the sake of their town.
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Bondo

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #173 on: May 04, 2020, 06:11:37 AM »
Heh, a whole series of films you've really liked that I mostly did not and then you get to one of the ones I do really like and get all lukewarm on it.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #174 on: May 05, 2020, 01:07:35 PM »
Heh, a whole series of films you've really liked that I mostly did not and then you get to one of the ones I do really like and get all lukewarm on it.

 ;D We may be more in line with our views on modern cinema than canon.
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Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #175 on: May 05, 2020, 06:32:24 PM »
Pickpocket
ROBERT BRESSON, 1959
2 STARS OUT OF 5

Ah, Mr. Bresson, and we had such a good start with A Man Escaped, but this one verges on the outright bad in my estimation. Thematically, I read it as trying to come to understand the mind of a compulsive criminal who is dedicated to a romantic notion of the benevolent thief who is mastering a craft. There is also the question of redemption and the crooked, strange paths life often presents. There is a bit about people justifiably breaking the law when faced with poverty, a sort of Robin Hood theory, but considering our protagonist, Michel, has other options before he takes on the life of crime undercuts any point trying to be made in this direction. Outside of that, the problem comes in the presentation, especially the woeful acting and hard-to-swallow ending.

For someone who has a conviction in his thievery, Martin La Salle as Michel, another non-professional actor (who'd nevertheless went on to rack up lots of acting credits after Pickpocket), makes his character feel like an empty husk. Maybe that's the point, but the poor quality of the acting can be drilled down to the artificial manner in which he looks away from the person he's talking to, in contemplation, as if he's performing exactly as he's told but has no instinct for even portraying the acts of thinking and conversing in a convincing manner. I chuckled out loud during several scenes of just watching him talk to someone else. The inspector who's onto his game (Jean Peligri), his concerned friend Jacques (Pierre Leymarie), even Marika Green as Jeanne all range from unremarkable to bad. It made me wish everything could have been done with voiceover narration, though a lot of this film is indeed covered that way. Those are the most convincing bits.

The last-minute revelation and desire to get on a straight path and do right by Jeanne, who keeps with him despite how awful he is to her, is terribly unearned. Surely, prison gives one a lot of time to think about things, and Jeanne writes to him and shows him true love and devotion, but the change in him is too sudden. The very weird final scene left me with an eyebrow raised.

The positives are primarily in the filming. The choreographed pickpocket scenes are oddly fun and a little nerve-racking. They do the trick of showing crime, maybe even glorifying a little, but then always cutting to a scene where it's clear how Michel's lifestyle prevents him from any semblance of happiness, or, due to his penchant for gambling and other fun, any financial comfort. The camera carefully and seamlessly directs us from pocket-to-pocket and shows Bresson in a sweet spot of displaying procedure in an upfront, nevertheless fascinating manner.

Even with the notion that this film is not good, I'm still looking forward to Au Hasard Balthazar, although I'm very nervous about what they do to that donkey. I hear he performs admirably, though. Seriously, it sounds like it's quite insightful on manners of human nature, so I'm not going to let Pickpocket color my impression of Bresson too much, especially considering my love for A Man Escaped. It'll probably be a make-or-break for me with this particular director, at least for a while, though.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2020, 07:49:51 PM by etdoesgood »
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Bondo

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #176 on: May 05, 2020, 07:10:57 PM »
It's possible I made a mistake by making Pickpocket my first Bresson. I didn't like it and now three in I have avoided Bresson. But I haven't seen A Man Escaped or Au Hasard Balthazar.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #177 on: May 05, 2020, 07:57:00 PM »
It's possible I made a mistake by making Pickpocket my first Bresson. I didn't like it and now three in I have avoided Bresson. But I haven't seen A Man Escaped or Au Hasard Balthazar.

Wondering what the others you saw were.

I think A Man Escaped possesses the strengths of this film, namely the amazing attention to detail in a procedure, this time of of escaping prison (obviously) and the quality use of voiceover narration, without the problems as the acting is a non-factor and there's no troublesome love story to worry about. There is an elegance in its simplicity, and yet the simplicity is deceptive given the extraordinary detail of the escape. I don't exactly know if that's up your alley, but it really worked for me.
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Bondo

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #178 on: May 05, 2020, 08:00:50 PM »
I also have watched L'Argent and Mouchette. Pickpocket was my "favorite" of the three.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #179 on: May 05, 2020, 08:06:49 PM »
Oh dear.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire