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| gromit |
 Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:12 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Picked up a quartet of recentish mostly under the radar films.
Que Viva Eisenstein (Peter Greenaway) about the time Eisenstein was almost a Hollywood director and then tried to make some film in Mexico financed by Upton Sinclair and his wife. Unfortunately, I've never seen Que Viva Mexico (I think). No idea if this is good, but since I was just watching Strike, thought I'd try it.
Calvary with Brendan Gelason. Some sort of priest thriller/drama. Was recced.
Low Down, about a jazz musician and his relationship with heroin and his daughter. Based on a real musician. Elle Fanning as the daughter.
Phoenix (Christian Petzhold) I was asking about this last week. I think it's a neo-noir. But I thought Petzhold and Nina Hoss were interesting in some other films, so I'm on board.
Have these been seen? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:25 pm |
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| I have eard nothing but raves about Phoenix, and the plot sounds terrific, so am waiting for it to turn up somewhere. IIRC there's a 60s adaptation of the same novel, Retour de les Cendres or something like that. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 1:46 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Petzhold's previous film, Barbara, was quite good. In the vein of The Lives of Others with a side order of Varda's Vagabond. Nina Hoss is a terrific actress with a strong presence.
I went with Calvary last night. Quite a good Irish film, set in a rural village of lapsed morally ungrounded Catholics. An older priest tries to administer to the village as all sorts of sin and ugliness threatens to break loose. The cinematography is impressive and Brendan Gleason holds the film together as the priest. The level of vice and the disrespect shown to the priest/Church is a bit extreme, while the eccentric characters and corrupt seediness start resembling a David Lynch film. These aspects brought the film down a peg, imo.
It's an interesting, solid film. The dialogue is quite good. The landscape is impressive. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 3:03 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Bridge of Spies is a spy drama set during the height of the Cold War and yet is remarkably devoid of suspense. For the success of Cold War or Nazi era movies, a dark and monstrous enemy is necessary, but Spielberg's post-Cold War sensibility gives us Soviets and East Germans who are pussycats. An interesting movie nevertheless.
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 8:04 am |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
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Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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Ghulam wrote: .
Bridge of Spies is a spy drama set during the height of the Cold War and yet is remarkably devoid of suspense. For the success of Cold War or Nazi era movies, a dark and monstrous enemy is necessary, but Spielberg's post-Cold War sensibility gives us Soviets and East Germans who are pussycats. An interesting movie nevertheless.
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Ghulam, I saw the movie on Tuesday and once again I have the same thoughts about this movie as you have. Interesting. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 10:45 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Eisenstein in Guanajuato (Peter Greenaway, 2015).
Well, this is a film about Eisenstein's time in Mexico, when he intended to make a series of films funded by Upton Sinclair and his wife, after his Hollywood dalliance fizzled out. Unfortunately, Greenaway is primarily interested in Eisenstein's personality and sexuality, and not his art/filmmaking.
It's almost perverse to make a film about a filmmaker making films and show none of his ideas, work product, directorial style -- basically nothing about him making films. At least twice in the film, he tells his Russian cameramen to go ahead and film and he'll come later (maybe). And once later it's explained that the rushes are being processed in a US film lab, so Eisenstein doesn't get to see them.
Greenaway focuses on Eisenstein's homosexuality and an affair with his Mexican guide. And this seems to be what Greenaway cares about. There's one extended scene of homosexual sex, where Eisenstein supposedly loses his virginity. Eisenstein's sex life just doesn't interest me, unless it gets tied to his filmmaking somehow, which isn't the case here.
There are a number of odd techniques tossed in -- distorting lenses, three panel split-screen with action usually repeated in each one, brief clips of Eisenstein's first three films, and original photographs of Eisenstein and his cameramen and some famous folks he talks about. The latter was interesting, though at times too rapid. I wondered why Greenaway never attempted to do an Eisenstein-style montage scene.
Anyway, I thought this was mildly diverting, but offering little of substance. Eisenstein is presented as a goofball, unsure of his sexuality, playing the buffoon, with some interesting theoretical ideas here and there. And much of the film is just Eisenstein talking. Apparently he was also a filmmaker, and managed to make at least part of a film while in Mexico. I guess one message that comes through is how such a bohemian, artistic, free-spirit would suffer in Stalin's USSR. E frequently makes jokes about how poor and limited things are in the Soviet Union. So Mexico affords him greater freedom. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 1:47 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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marantzo wrote: Ghulam wrote: .
Bridge of Spies is a spy drama set during the height of the Cold War and yet is remarkably devoid of suspense. For the success of Cold War or Nazi era movies, a dark and monstrous enemy is necessary, but Spielberg's post-Cold War sensibility gives us Soviets and East Germans who are pussycats. An interesting movie nevertheless.
. , I saw the movie on Tuesday and once again I have the same thoughts about this movie as you have. Interesting.
Great minds think alike, Gary! |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 11:06 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote:
I went with Calvary last night. Quite a good Irish film, set in a rural village of lapsed morally ungrounded Catholics. An older priest tries to administer to the village as all sorts of sin and ugliness threatens to break loose. The cinematography is impressive and Brendan Gleason holds the film together as the priest. The level of vice and the disrespect shown to the priest/Church is a bit extreme, while the eccentric characters and corrupt seediness start resembling a David Lynch film. These aspects brought the film down a peg, imo.
It's an interesting, solid film. The dialogue is quite good. The landscape is impressive.
Agree the apostasy was OTT....surreal to a degree. Brendan and Domnhall together in the prison scene, a meta moment considering them as father and son. Amazing cast, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly (always plays someone broken and fragile in their mended state), and M. Emmet Walsh. As for landscape, well, point a camera at the Irish coastal areas, it's going to impress. Wonder if the painting pisser uponner was able to get out of his funk. The script was quite good, as you said. McDonagh's a playwright, isn't he? Have to digest it a while. It's going to stay with me, I'll say that.
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:32 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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bartist wrote:
Calvary
Agree the apostasy was OTT....surreal to a degree.
That's why I called it Lynchian. Especially the gay prostitute and to a lesser degree the town slut.
I didn't recognize M. Emmett -- thought it might be Billy Weeds in old age makeup ...
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Wonder if the painting pisser uponner was able to get out of his funk.
I didn't. Because I didn't believe in that character at all. Seemed rather phony and contrived. I think he was my least favorite part of the film. I could have done without the OTT gay prostitute as well, though at least his mannerisms and delivery were comical, as though he stepped out of the Depression Era film or was trying out for a Bowery Boys part.
While it works in the film, the killer's motivation and choice of target are rather unlikely. Acceptably so in motivating an off-kilter story, but when you think back it doesn't really add up. One thing I thought interesting is that the killer's revenge will result in him being put back into the same kind of helpless dangerous situation he experienced as a child and is acting out against. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:58 am |
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Well, Low Down was rather familiar and forgettable. A jazz pianist has trouble juggling his heroin habit, teenage daughter and career in the early 70's when jazz is mostly an afterthought.
It just seemed rather perfunctory.
Also, I got tired of the constant medium closeups and the brown/tan look of the whole film. There is some terrific music throughout, some from the real Joe Albany, plus Monk and other classic jazz.
Part of the problem is that the film is about the pianist Joe Albany but from the point of view mostly of his teenage daughter (Elle Fanning) who wrote the book and screenplay. So we get a lot of reaction shots of EF -- who seems much older than the 13 year old she is supposed to be at the beginning of the film -- and mostly the home life of Joe Albany. We never really get a sense of his musical approach or his reasons for taking/starting to take H.
The cast is interesting: Elle (I thought she was terrific in Ginger & Rosa a few years ago where she successfully played an older girl); Glenn Close as the grandmother; Flea as a jazz buddy; Peter Dinklage as a hipster dwarf pornstar. I'm not familiar with John Hawkes who plays Joe Albany and mostly looks like Sean Penn playing a jazz druggie. The estranged wife/mother is presented as a hard core drunk and lousy person who used to be a singer. But none of the characters really come alive.
Anyway, the film has kind of a purposefully ugly look for early 70's NY. I did like some of the period touches, like the rather ugly candy machines with the pull out levers (with a loud chunk-ching), and when the daughter is sent to the movies so Joe can have the apartment, she sees Sweetback and the price is $1.
Overall seemed the kind of film you watch any half hour of on cable and feel done with. Nothing wrong with it, just too may scenes that kind of fizzle out. And those brown medium closeups get wearisome. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:55 pm |
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| Phoenix was a disappointment. I thought the entire premise and its attendant complications were all rather silly, absurd, contrived. All the sets looked like sets. Even the period clothing and women's 40's hairstyles were ugly and unappealing. Maybe to represent post-war deprivation. But even those period elements were uninteresting. The opening set up is rather draggy for 20+ minutes. About the only thing I liked was the ballad at the very end. Not the way it was used in the film, but the song itself. Your mileage may vary but this really didn't work for me. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 7:35 pm |
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gromit wrote:
I didn't recognize M. Emmett...
Must interpolate a proofreading note here. He spells his name Emmet, with one T, the same as my elder grandson. There's a "t-two t Emmet-Emmett" war on, didn't you know?  |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 3:02 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Steve Jobs is a roller coaster of a movie. It is both harsh and admiring of its subject. The movie is just one long and very lively dialogue between some very intelligent and productive people. Danny Boyle's direction, Aaron Sorkin's script and Michel Fassbender's performance are all superb. An extraordinary movie!
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 5:17 pm |
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We are off to the googolplex, after several weeks of schedule snafus, and will see either Jobs, Bridge o'spies, or the Martian. We rejected Truth and Rock the Kasbah, which seem to have drawn lotsa critical flack. The pans for Truth made it sound like a Razzie nominee.
Later: Steve Jobs - everything Ghulam said. Best screenplay of the year so far, IMO. Both Wozniak and Lisa (who declined to talk with Isaacson the biographer) were willing to consult for Sorkin. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 2:36 am |
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