IdleRich

IdleRich
Yesterday we finally got round to watching Bait from last year or the year before. It's a very good film... low key and simple and effective. It does get you where it hurts although I feel that it kinda pulls the punches a bit (edit; not really the right phrase as that implies that it was the wrong choice. I think the restraint shown was artistically sound) by choosing not to go all out. As in, for example, Thunder Road which I watched recently where event after heart-breaking event piles up on the protagonist and it's hard to watch and powerful and so on... but really the decision made here not to just bury the poor bastard added an extra dimension I thought. A really good little film, and it does feel little, personal, whatever.
In addition I like the way it's shot and the acting which almost reminds me of some of those early Fassbinder films or something. A kind of naturalistic anti-acting that almost comes right round the circle and ends up feeling more real.
Also, when I was younger my girlfriend at the time and I hired a car and drove round Devon and Cornwall and stayed in B&Bs. And I liked it so much I did it again later with another girlfriend. Salcombe, Brixham etc etc lovely places. And many years later with another girlfriend I went to Cromer in East Anglia to a b&b and then with the same girl to Whitby and stayed in an AirBnB (I think) that used to be a fisherman's cottage and... well there is a scene in Bait where she is showing these hipsters from London (I assume) around a converted fisherman's cottage and telling them about the "bottle of fizz in the fridge and the local cheese" and I was just like "That's me... am I a cunt?" - I mean obviously I am but this was discovering a new way that I'm a cunt that I didn't even know about.

 
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version

Well-known member
Escape from Alcatraz (1979). Amazing. The escape's up there with the heist sequence from Rififi in terms of tension. I was watching it praying nobody knocked a pipe or slipped. The actual story's even crazier than the film. Incredible the stuff they managed to steal and build.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Anyone seen Dark Song (Liam Gillingham I think). Amazing. Best occult film I've ever seen. Would fit loosely on a double bill with Hereditary, as the screenwriters have obviously read some occult texts - The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, in this case. First 3/4 of the film does a brilliant job of situating everything weird that happens as a possible hallucination. The ending is fire.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Pretty sure I've seen that, is it the one where there are a couple holed up in a house doing this rite together?
Yeah that's right. The occultist is proper scuzzy as well,as they should be. Like John Constantine. You can smell the fans and whisky through the screen. Reminded me of Luka a bit on reflection.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Yesterday we finally got round to watching Bait from last year or the year before. It's a very good film... low key and simple and effective. It does get you where it hurts although I feel that it kinda pulls the punches a bit (edit; not really the right phrase as that implies that it was the wrong choice. I think the restraint shown was artistically sound) by choosing not to go all out. As in, for example, Thunder Road which I watched recently where event after heart-breaking event piles up on the protagonist and it's hard to watch and powerful and so on... but really the decision made here not to just bury the poor bastard added an extra dimension I thought. A really good little film, and it does feel little, personal, whatever.
In addition I like the way it's shot and the acting which almost reminds me of some of those early Fassbinder films or something. A kind of naturalistic anti-acting that almost comes right round the circle and ends up feeling more real.
Also, when I was younger my girlfriend at the time and I hired a car and drove round Devon and Cornwall and stayed in B&Bs. And I liked it so much I did it again later with another girlfriend. Salcombe, Brixham etc etc lovely places. And many years later with another girlfriend I went to Cromer in East Anglia to a b&b and then with the same girl to Whitby and stayed in an AirBnB (I think) that used to be a fisherman's cottage and... well there is a scene in Bait where she is showing these hipsters from London (I assume) around a converted fisherman's cottage and telling them about the "bottle of fizz in the fridge and the local cheese" and I was just like "That's me... am I a cunt?" - I mean obviously I am but this was discovering a new way that I'm a cunt that I didn't even know about.


Genius film-making. The discrepancy between the black and white grainy film and overdubbed audio creates a sense of dissociation that’s the core theme of the film - loss of home, loss of the boat, the pub going to shit and Brexit lurking, somewhere unsaid. Superb for a dark wintery day or night.


Anyone seen Dark Song (Liam Gillingham I think). Amazing. Best occult film I've ever seen. Would fit loosely on a double bill with Hereditary, as the screenwriters have obviously read some occult texts - The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, in this case. First 3/4 of the film does a brilliant job of situating everything weird that happens as a possible hallucination. The ending is fire.

It had be up until all the monster demons started lunging out of corridors and cupboards. Steve Oram is good and the reason for the girl’s quest drew me back in at the finale. I wasn’t expecting such a humble, human “request” and her face, cleansed, as she drives away. Hit and miss.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Genius film-making. The discrepancy between the black and white grainy film and overdubbed audio creates a sense of dissociation that’s the core theme of the film - loss of home, loss of the boat, the pub going to shit and Brexit lurking, somewhere unsaid. Superb for a dark wintery day or night.




It had be up until all the monster demons started lunging out of corridors and cupboards. Steve Oram is good and the reason for the girl’s quest drew me back in at the finale. I wasn’t expecting such a humble, human “request” and her face, cleansed, as she drives away. Hit and miss.
That encounter with darkness before redemption actually mirrors the Abramelin text. Seemed spot on to me, psychologically.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
It’s the one area of the film where the budget lets it down is all, so that section grated psychologically. The 3rd act too, which is where a lot of films slump. Sure Abramelin won’t be offended ;j
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I thought that section was very well done. It seemed to slip into properly grimy horror, the bit where she was tied up reminded me of Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is pretty much the best horror every (on the level of mise en scene, it's stunning).

The horror before the angelic visions actually reminded me of some stuff that happened to me, midway through a year or so of doing some magical work. Fairly obviously it wasn't that extreme but the basic mechanism - visions of horror before the light - is accurate in my experience.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Just rewatched Alien: Ressurection, and I think it went from being my least favorite, from what I recall, to neck-and-neck with the first.

And it got me thinking about franchise potential, most broadly, if each entry is handled according to different visions, an auteur shift, an authorial phase shift.

And thats largely because of how idiosyncratic Jeunet is, to my knowledge. I recently rewatched Delicatessen and Amelie, and City of Lost Children and Mic Macs are among my all time favorites.

That would allow for a sort of higher-order authorial position, one that determined what thematic and stylistic elements are inherited across a series of films, each being helmed by singular visions.

The closest thing that comes to mind is the marvel cinematic universe, and that barely qualifies. Thats still too federalized, too unipolar.

What other examples do we have of a film franchise in which each entry seems to be speaking different its own language? The alien franchise qualifies to some extent, but I'm curious about what would happen with a franchise that was built to be expressed in such a multipolar way.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Also just saw Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which I somehow didn;t even know was Miyazaki until the end credits started, although it seems obvious now. Anyway it was beautifully made, imagine a Ghibli-esque Fantastic Planet. Post-climate-disaster, reckoning with nature, withholding and resisting violence, etc.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I watched Skyscraper last night, which I would recommend even though it barely exists beyond the obvious pitch that got it made in the first place: Die Hard meets Towering Inferno starring The Rock. The plot constructed to make that pitch work was entertainingly ludicrous, although basically reduced to an extortion racket. At the end it featured a cool update of The Lady from Shanghai/Enter the Dragon multiple mirror conceit.
 
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