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Post by Fox in the Snow on May 17, 2020 23:03:20 GMT
Best, or most interesting.
Doesn't have to be a new film, just one that's new to you.
And why if you'd care to elaborate.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on May 18, 2020 3:03:22 GMT
For me it would be Ida (2013), arguably a small, simple story but what got it over the line for me were the visuals. Probably the most elegantly photographed film I've seen in a while. The washed out grey monochrome, the austere mise-en-scene, the 4:3 aspect and the way the characters nearly always occupy just the bottom half of the screen. Very reminiscent of Dreyer.
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clayton12
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Post by clayton12 on May 18, 2020 7:27:35 GMT
For me it would be Ida (2013), arguably a small, simple story but what got it over the line for me were the visuals. Probably the most elegantly photographed film I've seen in a while. The washed out grey monochrome, the austere mise-en-scene, the 4:3 aspect and the way the characters nearly always occupy just the bottom half of the screen. Very reminiscent of Dreyer. Have you seen any of Pawel Pawlikowski's earlier films? While I thought Ida was certainly visually stunning and spectacularly composed, and possibly more accomplished as a whole, I found Last Resort and particularly My Summer of Love to be more emotionally engaging - both those films made a greater impact on me. I'm yet to see Cold War.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on May 18, 2020 9:08:46 GMT
For me it would be Ida (2013), arguably a small, simple story but what got it over the line for me were the visuals. Probably the most elegantly photographed film I've seen in a while. The washed out grey monochrome, the austere mise-en-scene, the 4:3 aspect and the way the characters nearly always occupy just the bottom half of the screen. Very reminiscent of Dreyer. Have you seen any of Pawel Pawlikowski's earlier films? While I thought Ida was certainly visually stunning and spectacularly composed, and possibly more accomplished as a whole, I found Last Resort and particularly My Summer of Love to be more emotionally engaging - both those films made a greater impact on me. I'm yet to see Cold War. I've not seen the two you mention, but I have seen The Woman in the Fifth which I liked due to the mysterious ambiguous mood it created. Cold War I found just as stunning visually as Ida, but that's the one I couldn't really engage with, at least not until the final act. It may have had something to do with how quickly it moved, taking place over a number of years. I'd like to see his earlier work.
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Post by Catman on May 18, 2020 11:38:22 GMT
仄暗い水の底から (Dark Water)
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Post by Reynard on May 18, 2020 21:22:04 GMT
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939) by Kenji Mizoguchi. I'm not a big fan of those half dozens Mizoguchis I had seen before, but this one was a masterpiece. Touching story combined with enchantingly hazy, silent movie like cinematography. 9/10
Catman 猫的主人 - Dark Water is one of the scariest films I've ever seen.
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Post by clayton12 on May 18, 2020 22:18:03 GMT
The Seen and Unseen (Kamila Andini, 2017) delves into Balinese mythology and culture through the eyes of a child. 10-year-old Tantri had always been inseparable from her twin brother Tantra, but now an inoperable brain tumor has left him lying comatose in a hospital bed. Outwardly, Tantri is petrified and uncomprehending of what is happening - in order to make sense of the unfolding tragedy, she frequently dreams her way into the world between life and death that Tantra now occupies, and together they tell each other stories with shadow puppets, play with dressing up, and explore this world through dance. This is slow-moving and somewhat abstract at times, but it's always striking, and the performances from the two young leads are excellent - and kudos to Andini for filming this using Balinese language instead of Indonesian (it had kind of troubled me with Marlina the Murderer to hear everyone speaking Indonesian instead of Sundanese, similarly the use of Mandarin in Tuya’s Marriage).
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Post by Fox in the Snow on May 19, 2020 8:34:40 GMT
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939) by Kenji Mizoguchi. I'm not a big fan of those half dozens Mizoguchis I had seen before, but this one was a masterpiece. Touching story combined with enchantingly hazy, silent movie like cinematography. 9/10 I'm a big fan of Mizoguchi, he's probably my favorite Japanese director after Ozu and I've liked pretty much all the films I've seen from him. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum is one of his best. A shame more of his earlier work hasn't survived.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on May 19, 2020 8:38:28 GMT
The Seen and Unseen (Kamila Andini, 2017) delves into Balinese mythology and culture through the eyes of a child. 10-year-old Tantri had always been inseparable from her twin brother Tantra, but now an inoperable brain tumor has left him lying comatose in a hospital bed. Outwardly, Tantri is petrified and uncomprehending of what is happening - in order to make sense of the unfolding tragedy, she frequently dreams her way into the world between life and death that Tantra now occupies, and together they tell each other stories with shadow puppets, play with dressing up, and explore this world through dance. This is slow-moving and somewhat abstract at times, but it's always striking, and the performances from the two young leads are excellent - and kudos to Andini for filming this using Balinese language instead of Indonesian (it had kind of troubled me with Marlina the Murderer to hear everyone speaking Indonesian instead of Sundanese, similarly the use of Mandarin in Tuya’s Marriage). I don't think I've seen a single film from Indonesia. Your description ( mythology, dreams her way into the world between life and death, slow-moving and somewhat abstract at times) makes it sound like a Weerasethakul film, which is very inviting.
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clayton12
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Post by clayton12 on May 19, 2020 9:55:21 GMT
The Seen and Unseen (Kamila Andini, 2017) delves into Balinese mythology and culture through the eyes of a child. 10-year-old Tantri had always been inseparable from her twin brother Tantra, but now an inoperable brain tumor has left him lying comatose in a hospital bed. Outwardly, Tantri is petrified and uncomprehending of what is happening - in order to make sense of the unfolding tragedy, she frequently dreams her way into the world between life and death that Tantra now occupies, and together they tell each other stories with shadow puppets, play with dressing up, and explore this world through dance. This is slow-moving and somewhat abstract at times, but it's always striking, and the performances from the two young leads are excellent - and kudos to Andini for filming this using Balinese language instead of Indonesian (it had kind of troubled me with Marlina the Murderer to hear everyone speaking Indonesian instead of Sundanese, similarly the use of Mandarin in Tuya’s Marriage). I don't think I've seen a single film from Indonesia. Your description ( mythology, dreams her way into the world between life and death, slow-moving and somewhat abstract at times) makes it sound like a Weerasethakul film, which is very inviting. I'm reasonably confident that this one would be right up your alley. I think for a combination of historical, political and economic reasons, Indonesia hasn't developed as vibrant a film industry as, say, Thailand or the Philippines. They've recently had quite a bit of success with some really high-quality genre fare - the Gareth Evans/Iko Uwais film The Raid is probably the cornerstone, but there's also the films of Joko Anwar, and the Mo Brothers (Kimo Stanboel and Timo Tjahjanto), among others.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on May 19, 2020 11:36:44 GMT
I guess it would be Kihachi Okamoto’s “The Sword of Doom” (1966). Visually it is simply stunning, with gorgeous black and white photography and beautifully composed shots. The story leaves a little to be desired - the commentary on the Criterion Blu-Ray even acknowledges as much - but the visuals alone made it more than worth my while.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on May 19, 2020 11:56:39 GMT
I guess it would be Kihachi Okamoto’s “The Sword of Doom” (1966). Visually it is simply stunning, with gorgeous black and white photography and beautifully composed shots. The story leaves a little to be desired - the commentary on the Criterion Blu-Ray even acknowledges as much - but the visuals alone made it more than worth my while. Indeed, a great, stylish genre piece.
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Post by rudeboy on May 22, 2020 1:43:40 GMT
I was mixed on Ida... it was beautifully shot, of course, and I thought Agata Kulesza’s performance was wonderful, but I found the title character rather bland and the film held me at arm’s length throughout, meaning I never became fully emotionally invested in Ida’s story.
Thanks to lockdown I have had a busy month, and seen quite a lot of memorable films. The best non-English titles? Probably Days and Nights in the Forest (Satyajit Ray, 1970), Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires, 1970 - I’ve actually been on a mini ‘quest’ to see more titles from 1970 lately) and Take Care of My Cat (Jae-eun Jeong, 2001).
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Post by clayton12 on May 22, 2020 3:11:18 GMT
Thanks to lockdown I have had a busy month, and seen quite a lot of memorable films. The best non-English titles? Probably Days and Nights in the Forest (Satyajit Ray, 1970), Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires, 1970 - I’ve actually been on a mini ‘quest’ to see more titles from 1970 lately) and Take Care of My Cat (Jae-eun Jeong, 2001). What did you think of Take Care of My Cat? I saw it about a year ago, and was a bit blindsided when it turned out to be substantially a different film to the one I was expecting. I had kind of assumed somewhere along the way that it was a warm and humorous tale of female friendship - not necessarily insubstantial, but light. I watched it back-to-back with La Haine, and instead of getting something completely contrasting with that film, I found myself watching something that was also political, (and, while fitting within a "chick-flick" frame, not getting bogged down in gender politics). In the end I thought the two films turned out to be really quite complementary.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on May 22, 2020 13:08:39 GMT
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires, 1970 - I’ve actually been on a mini ‘quest’ to see more titles from 1970 lately) Love that film, a true one-of-a-kind. Think it takes my top spot for that year also.
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Post by rudeboy on May 24, 2020 6:01:08 GMT
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires, 1970 - I’ve actually been on a mini ‘quest’ to see more titles from 1970 lately) Love that film, a true one-of-a-kind. Think it takes my top spot for that year also. Yes, 'surrealist' films can go either way for me but this one really won me over. Some beautiful, haunting imagery... definitely one to remember.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2020 12:14:18 GMT
I've been able to see some really good movies this month. 3 of them stand out for different reasons.
Dry Summer-1963-Turkey About 2 brothers who have a spring on their land and one brother decides to block off the water for the rest of the village. Magnificently done. What's intriguing to me is that it's very similar to Jean de Florette which is based on a novel from 1962. The movie was made some 20 years later. I haven't been able to find and correlation between Dry Summer and the book that came out the previous year. It very well may be a coincidence.
Mother -2009-South Korea-from the director of Parasite. Extremely well done and keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way.
Teorema-1968-Italy- This one that stays in your head for awhile after you see it. You're not quite sure what you saw and when you think you have it figured out, the more you think about it the more you're wrong.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on May 24, 2020 12:31:55 GMT
I've been able to see some really good movies this month. 3 of them stand out for different reasons. Dry Summer-1963-Turkey About 2 brothers who have a spring on their land and one brother decides to block off the water for the rest of the village. Magnificently done. What's intriguing to me is that it's very similar to Jean de Florette which is based on a novel from 1962. The movie was made some 20 years later. I haven't been able to find and correlation between Dry Summer and the book that came out the previous year. It very well may be a coincidence. Mother -2009-South Korea-from the director of Parasite. Extremely well done and keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way. Teorema-1968-Italy- This one that stays in your head for awhile after you see it. You're not quite sure what you saw and when you think you have it figured out, the more you think about it the more you're wrong. I quite liked Mother, very dark and really keeps you guessing. Almost as good as Parasite. Only other Bong Joon-ho film I've seen is Snowpiercer, which didn't really click for me. I really need to get to Pasolini, one of the biggest names I've still not seen a single film from.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on May 24, 2020 12:49:44 GMT
I was mixed on Ida... it was beautifully shot, of course, and I thought Agata Kulesza’s performance was wonderful, but I found the title character rather bland and the film held me at arm’s length throughout, meaning I never became fully emotionally invested in Ida’s story. Same here. The director’s subsequent film (“Cold War”), on the other hand, is one of my favourite films of the past few years.
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Post by rudeboy on May 24, 2020 13:02:22 GMT
I was mixed on Ida... it was beautifully shot, of course, and I thought Agata Kulesza’s performance was wonderful, but I found the title character rather bland and the film held me at arm’s length throughout, meaning I never became fully emotionally invested in Ida’s story. Same here. The director’s subsequent film (“Cold War”), on the other hand, is one of my favourite films of the past few years. Frustratingly, Cold War is one of several films - Manos and Portrait of a Lady on Fire also among them - which I would have seen by now if not for lockdown... hopefully I'll get to catch up once it's over, my local independent cinema is likely to bring them back.
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