baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Henry is a fantastic film - can remember it being more atmospheric than brutal, a few scenes apart*.

Just don't watch the end of Audition, whatever you do.

* having just read the plot synopsis on wiki (haven't seen it in a while), i think this description may be a little wrong.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
I really enjoyed Salo, if that's the right word. I appreciate Pasolini trying to make you feel something, anything. Truly a scream of the soul.

I know I've watched Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, and I remember liking it enough, but only a few scenes stuck with me.

I just watched Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. What a lot of fun that was. Really good score, of course. And Victor Wong and Donald Pleasance sharing the screen, wow!
Loomis_Wong.jpg
 

e/y

Well-known member
Prince of Darkness is fantastic!

couldn't even finish 'Henry'. speaking of very brutal films, saw 'Maniac' with Frodo in the lead role. quite decent overall, but there's a few scenes which were really hard to watch, I think in large part b/c of the POV from which they were shown.

loved 'Upstream Colors' btw, thanks for the tip Bangpuss. I'm probably too dumb to fully understand it, but for one reason or other it really grabbed me. want to see it again.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
spring breakers. its still harmony korine just being harmony korine, except this time he seems to have a firmer grip on narrative resolution, although weirdly, i didnt want him to have a firmer grip, i wanted the film to stay in that sort of impressionistic, grittier terrence malick kind of mode it starts off in. it is a bit juvenille, he still likes to use crude/jarring effects, and there is quite a bit of ineffectual repetitivness in the film, but it does have something about it that stays with you, a kind of blankness mixed with a light air of irony at times. its a bit like american indie-arthouse russ meyer, though the whole pop video aesthetic for some reason seemed very late 90s, rather than shockingly of the moment which is how some people seem to have read it... vanessa hudgens is um, really, really, really great in it.
 
loved 'Upstream Colors' btw, thanks for the tip Bangpuss. I'm probably too dumb to fully understand it, but for one reason or other it really grabbed me. want to see it again.

OK, I'm watching it again now in a different frame of mind. Putting aside the absurdities, which are only the necessary mechanical absurdites of circumstance and plotting that necessitate parasites and pig farming (and which could be improved upon to make this a better movie), it's an interesting, well-executed study of control and indifference vs autonomy and love. The biological realism and inadequately explained psychological elements are too close to sympathetic magic and other voodoos to be credible, but it's washed out banality and self-concern go halfway to making up for that. I'm backpedalling furiously now because it bears another viewing. It's the same old message of love can (but doesn't always) conquer all.

Still reminds me of Philip K. Dick though. The refractions in the crystal reflected as fracture narrative. The episode with the asthmatic wife is a non-sequitur like some of the stranger passages in Valis. Not often they manifest in film, so it's probably as good as Bangpuss said. :)
 
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blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
The Innocents (1961)

The sound design, in its use of echo and reverberation, put a date on it, though many would enjoy it as "vintage". The cinematography and incredible restraint (particularly in respect of Peter Wyngarde's brief, unhinged appearances) made it genuinely chilling. If I'd seen it as a 10-year old it would have scared the fucking shit out of me.

Also, I thought several times that it must surely have been a very strong influence on Jonathan Miller's Whistle And I'll Come To You (1968?), which I've always loved.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I watched The Innocents a month or two back and then went to see The Turn of the Screw in the theatre in Angel. Two slightly different treatments with more emphasis on the sexual abuse angle in the more modern production - apparently that is implied in the novel in a way that would have been understood at the time but which went right over my head when I read it.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
There's an amazing site that provides an overview of the changing interpretations of the novel - I can't seem to find it in my bookmarks right now, but it's absolutely fascinating. May be part of someone's PhD thesis, in fact.

http://www.turnofthescrew.com/ sometimes the simple answer is the right one.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I'm about a decade late, but 24 Hour Party People is fabulous. So annoying that when looking for a film to make you laugh, this wouldn't turn up anywhere if you searched for 'comedy'. The guy playing Shaun Ryder deserved an oscar.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I'm about a decade late, but 24 Hour Party People is fabulous. So annoying that when looking for a film to make you laugh, this wouldn't turn up anywhere if you searched for 'comedy'. The guy playing Shaun Ryder deserved an oscar.

really? I'll have a look. I need funny at the moment.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Definitely. First film to cheer me up in a while. Coogan as Tony Wilson is an inspired choice too, but that's been well-documented, i'm sure
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I was listening to the Mondays and Joy Division all day yesterday as a result. Martin Hannett really is/was a genius - my favourite character in the film too. There's some great interviews on the DVD extras too, or whatever this is : . Guess who steals the show?

Michael Winterbottom's stock really seemed to sink after 9 Songs (maybe no surprise, not seen it). I forgot that he did both Jude and Wonderland - his CV is impressive
 
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If you like 24 hour party people you should love 'Good Vibrations', it's like the former but without Shawn Ryder carrying a revolver :)

It's about Terry Hooley, the over-optimistic Belfast record shop owner who decided to open a up his business during the heart of the troubles. Then he discovered Teenage Kicks, John Peel played it twice a row on Radio 1 and history was made. Except that he shares Tony Wilson's eccentricity when it comes to not giving a fuck about profit margins. The film is funny, enjoyable, and- dare I say it- a feel good movie, but in a good way.

Not sure what the distribution is like in England (arthouse fleatpits only or whether it got into the multiplexes) but this film deserves to do very well for itself, would love to see it make a slash in the states. And it is perhaps the first film set in Northern Ireland that won't make local audiences cringe- probably in no small part because it was made by locals and the odd English cast members do the accent well.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I was planning to see it at the cinema, but I think that its run has ended now in London. I liked the story about Hooley confronting Bob Dylan over his silence on the Vietnam War ("Joan Baez was too good for him")
 
D

droid

Guest
I was surprised to find myself enjoying 'The grey'. Quite a few outrageous action tropes, but with a very sombre nihilistic tone throughout and some oddly touching scenes. Certainly not the average action/survival fodder.

Another vote for 'prince of darkness'. Probably Carpenter's creepiest film, and up there with 'the thing' as his best work.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Went to the ICA to watch The Stoker yesterday (not to be confused with Stoker by the Old Boy guy). A Russian film about an ex-army major who spends his days stoking a boiler which heats a building... and which is used by local gangsters to dispose of a large number of dead bodies. The film is fucking weird, despite some gesture towards a study of racism in Russia it's often played as a dark comedy with no effort made to get under the characters' skin and a bizarrely pleasant coffee-table house track constantly foregrounded in almost every scene. Of course things go horribly wrong for absolutely everyone until it ends in a nonsensical and pointless scene that has to be seen rather than described.
When I watched it everyone walked out of the cinema gawping confusedly at each other and so it gets my full recommendation.
 

nochexxx

harco pronting
that sounds good Rich, and reminds me of a Pete UM recommended film i watched over the weekend called Down Terrace. no idea who the director was, but it was very Shane Meadows. it also had some great music by Stephen Thrower.
 
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