Author Topic: pixote's super slow dictation marathon  (Read 33244 times)

pixote

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #170 on: January 30, 2017, 12:40:00 AM »
This has been going on so long, over half of your remaining dictators are no longer active.

That was my plan all along. Fewer dictators to disappoint!

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chardy999

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #171 on: January 30, 2017, 02:12:24 AM »
Have you seen much of Fatih Akin's work, pix?

In order of preference:
The Edge of Heaven
Head-On
Tschick
Soul Kitchen
Crossing the Bridge
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
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pixote

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #172 on: January 30, 2017, 02:14:10 AM »
Have you seen much of Fatih Akin's work, pix?

In order of preference:
The Edge of Heaven
Head-On
Tschick
Soul Kitchen
Crossing the Bridge

I haven't! I've had Head-On queued up for years but have never gotten around to it. I'll happily add The Edge of Heaven to this marathon and hope to get to it before the end of 2018, haha!

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chardy999

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #173 on: January 30, 2017, 05:06:55 AM »
Have you seen much of Fatih Akin's work, pix?

In order of preference:
The Edge of Heaven
Head-On
Tschick
Soul Kitchen
Crossing the Bridge

I haven't! I've had Head-On queued up for years but have never gotten around to it. I'll happily add The Edge of Heaven to this marathon and hope to get to it before the end of 2018, haha!

pixote

Eggzellent! Will look forward to it.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
- Groucho Marx

StarCarly

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #174 on: January 30, 2017, 03:25:08 PM »
I may have seen Interiors, too, but I can't even remember for sure. I think I've always been a little wary of it because it sounds like Woody Allen trying to make a Bergman film, and I'm always just like, "You know, I'd rather just watch a Bergman film by Bergman." :)

pixote


Ooh! Have you ever caught up with Interiors? That would be my dictation if you haven't!

"I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech."

Films Watched in 2017

Letterboxd

pixote

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #175 on: January 30, 2017, 03:32:14 PM »
Ooh! Have you ever caught up with Interiors? That would be my dictation if you haven't!

So it shall be!

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pixote

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #176 on: July 07, 2017, 01:23:26 AM »


Bitter Victory  (Nicholas Ray, 1957)
Dictated by ses

I tried to force myself to love this, just because I appreciated ses' dictation of it, but it was somewhat of a struggle. Then I looked back and realized that ses didn't necessarily love it either but was in the middle of a Nicholas Ray marathon and wanted to keep the discussion going. So the fact that it took me seven years to get to this dictation kind of defeats the purpose, lol.

My initial reaction to Bitter Victory mirrors ses' in most every way. It's a very good-looking film, the kind I would normally curate a series of screenshots from, but I'm pressed for time at the moment. Michel Kelber's camera turns the vastness of the desert into a claustrophobic crucible. Richard Burton, meanwhile, pops from the screen like an action star. It's almost regrettable that the story doesn't allow him to go full Indiana Jones or Rambo. Curd Jürgens is good as well, moment to moment. His character didn't fully cohere for me by the end, but I fault the script more than his performance.

What kept me from loving this movie is that is has too much subtext as text. Everything drives headlong towards character and theme, resulting in a very forced setup (with an unnecessary love triangle) and blinding the film from the details of its action sequences, which as a result lack strategy, spatial orientation, and stakes. They're all secondary to the morality play.

ses, I don't know if your appreciation of this film has deepened in the last few years, but for now I agree with your initial take: "I thought this film was decent, but not great."

Grade: B

Up next: Daguerréotypes (dictated by FifthCityMuse)

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pixote

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #177 on: October 06, 2017, 02:35:37 AM »


Daguerréotypes  (Agnès Varda, 1976)
Dictated by FifthCityMuse

This documentary is like a neighborly version of Rear Window; just as voyeuristic but with a intimate kindness to it. Varda's nonfiction films can often be overly precious for my tastes — too eager to find metaphors in every day moments — and that is occasionally the case here. The film is at times undermined by its editing, especially the rather forced intercutting between a magic show and quotidian moments in the shops on Rue Daguerre. When the magician makes a woman's head disappear and then the film cuts to a drivers ed class where the instructor is telling his students not to lose their heads, I can't help but roll my eyes. The problem is compounded by the fact that the magician and the small audience's reactions to his magic are so engaging that I resented every cut away. There's a fantastic exception at the end, however, when the magician is putting his audience to sleep and Varda intercuts living daguerreotypes of the various characters we've been introduced to over the course of the film. (Why is footage of people posing for still photos so damned satisfying?) All told, Daguerréotypes is all very pleasant and well filmed, satisfying that voyeuristic urge to know whats going on behind every door on a given street. Thanks, FiftyCityMuse!

Grade: B-

Up next: An Angel at My Table (dictated by oneaprilday)

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DarkeningHumour

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #178 on: October 06, 2017, 03:50:05 AM »
Just how many of these do you have pending (marathons I mean)?
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pixote

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #179 on: October 06, 2017, 04:11:25 AM »
Just how many of these do you have pending (marathons I mean)?

Year-by-Year: Something Old, Something New
Animation Education
A Decade of Filmspots
pixote super slow dictation marathon
1945 Retrospots
Looney Tunes
1960s World Cinema
Ciné Bambini: Adolescence on Film (this one will finally get off the ground soon, a full year later)

So, eight, I guess. Plus these marathons embedded elsewhere:

Buster Keaton
Alfred Hitchcock
John Ford
William Wyler
Top 100 Club
2017 Filmspots
2016 Leftovers
Unwatched Films I Own
Unwatched Films I 'Own'
1990s Far East Bracket Resurrections (done!)

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