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Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
Having watched the trailer I kinda got the feeling that it was a rip-off of Knives Out, or at least an attempt to cash-in on the vibe itt had created. And I also got the impression that - great looking sets notwithstanding - it was a much cruder version with far broader and more obvious comedy.
Yeah I do think Knives Out is probably the one most responsible for the recent whodunnit wave (Death on the Nile, etc). I think the Murder on the Orient Express remake was a couple years before Knives Out, but less popular. Glass Onion seems like the most popular one so far.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express are actual Agatha Christie stories, someone somewhere is always adapting one of them - Knives Out was noteworthy in that - as far as I know - it was the first big-budget whodunnit with a new, original story line in a long time. It felt as though it was a genre that apart from the interminable Agatha Christie production line had been forgotten on the big screen despite the fact that television seemingly consists of almost nothing else (hence my thread about detectives). It seemed as though someone had suddenly thought "You know what, these things used to be fun, let's go for it" and that there was genuine enjoyment in their rediscovery that came across in the film. Although having said that, you might also make an argument that The Hateful Eight was also almost in that tradition - although it wasn't a whodunnit, when I was watching it it strongly recalled that classic set up of people being trapped in a house for some reason and slowly bumped off. I really wouldn't be at all surprised if someone saw that and thought "Hey, maybe it's time to bring this kind of thing back" - hence Knives Out... thought that is obviously complete speculation.
 

version

Well-known member
I went to see 2001 at the BFI about five years ago, stoned out of my mind, and I'm not sure how I feel about it on the whole. Clearly there's a lot of unquestionably brilliant bits in it but I remember finding it (even on a big screen, even in that inebriated state) quite slow and boring, too.

I was talking to someone last night who said 2001 was their least favourite Kubrick and that Solaris blows it out of the water.

"Solaris just shits all over it as well. Way more authentic message. There's no transcendence, we're locked in and have to reckon with out limitations and our fellow man."

I haven't seen Solaris, so can't comment. I've only seen 2001 the once and that was years and years ago. I remember being transfixed though.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I was talking to someone last night who said 2001 was their least favourite Kubrick and that Solaris blows it out of the water.

"Solaris just shits all over it as well. Way more authentic message. There's no transcendence, we're locked in and have to reckon with out limitations and our fellow man."

I haven't seen Solaris, so can't comment. I've only seen 2001 the once and that was years and years ago. I remember being transfixed though.
I actually just watched the Clooney Solaris, and it was better than I was expecting. I don’t think hes that good in it, but the whole tone of the film I think is nailed. Natasha McElhonne (spelling?) I thought gave a better performance.

Been a while since I’ve seen the Tarkovsky one, so I’d have trouble comparing them.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I was talking to someone last night who said 2001 was their least favourite Kubrick and that Solaris blows it out of the water.

"Solaris just shits all over it as well. Way more authentic message. There's no transcendence, we're locked in and have to reckon with out limitations and our fellow man."

I haven't seen Solaris, so can't comment. I've only seen 2001 the once and that was years and years ago. I remember being transfixed though.

I believe that Tarkovsky thought that 2001 lacked the spiritual dimension that it should have had and that Solaris had an element of "that's what you should have done" to it.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I actually just watched the Clooney Solaris, and it was better than I was expecting. I don’t think hes that good in it, but the whole tone of the film I think is nailed. Natasha McElhonne (spelling?) I thought gave a better performance.

Been a while since I’ve seen the Tarkovsky one, so I’d have trouble comparing them.

It's not terrible is it? And if I remember correctly it took the plot in a different direction - ultimately it wasn't the same same story as the emphasis was quite different and ulitmately it was really about something else.

One thing that struck me and which I found somewhat surprising was how much better the fx, or maybe not fx, but simply the overall set was on the older film. I felt that in Tarkovsky's version the space ship had a tangible physical weight to it, it looked like a huge industrial lump of metal, dirty and oily, scarred by re-entry or minor blows from debris. It struck me as a plausible stab at what some sort of working ship of the future might look like, whereas by contrast, Soderberg's vision was so clean, I'm sure that that is also equally plausible, but just instinctively it didn't feel so real, compared to the solid density of Tarkovsky's take it seemed like a lighweight plastic version built out of leftovers from the BBC's Doctor Who.
 

version

Well-known member
I've seen the Soderbergh one and liked it much more than I expected to. I remember Mark Kermode sheepishly admitting he preferred it to the Tarkovsky one.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I've seen the Soderbergh one and liked it much more than I expected to. I remember Mark Kermode sheepishly admitting he preferred it to the Tarkovsky one.

Ha, he knew it was against the rules but he said it anyway - brave man stickign to his priniciples
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
The shining is too sterile and controlled to really have the power ppl assign to it. Its just brilliantly made as its Kubrick so ppl go nuts for it. 2001 is better just as a man vs machine thing. All the stuff with the apes could be edited out i think and it would still work. In the sight n sound poll the directors they polled voted 2001 in at number one.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
It's one of those things where you have a "serious" director making a "genre" film and that completely messes with the minds of people trying to review it - serious critics pronounce it the greatest horror ever - it must be by definition cos Kubrick is a better director than any silly horror guy could ever hope to be. From the other direction horror fans resent having their toes trod on and being lectured to by people who've never even seen Slaughtered Vomit Dolls part 3 - and thet might happen to point out it's not very scary and then they'll be told they haven't understood it or something... and so on and so forth.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
one of my favourite cinemas ever had a schizophrenic menu of one night Passolini, the next night Sam Raimi

I remember once three of us were sat in the cinema waiting for "Hells Angels on Wheels" to start and being offended when a couple of other patrons wandered in, it was as if some random strangers off the street had invaded your living room.. and then when the film ended we exited to confront the two notorious junkies who were there to see the 24 hour Warhol special screening ( they might have even screened "Empire State" - as far as I can recall down, might have got the title wrong, is it just "Empire"?), but that was the head count for the night, seven people ... no wonder the cinema had to close ... I miss those days tbh
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
The whole of Empire State? That's crazy... longest film I've seen in the cinema was War and Peace at the Barbican - it was very well done though with a couple of drinks breaks and one for dinner too. This is the sort of thing that i miss from London. Every now and again there is something but I realise how spoiled I was with stuff happening all the time... it was right there on a plate and of course I took if for granted, here you have to look for if or make it happen yourself I suppose.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
The whole of Empire State? That's crazy... longest film I've seen in the cinema was War and Peace at the Barbican - it was very well done though with a couple of drinks breaks and one for dinner too. This is the sort of thing that i miss from London. Every now and again there is something but I realise how spoiled I was with stuff happening all the time... it was right there on a plate and of course I took if for granted, here you have to look for if or make it happen yourself I suppose.

yeah, it was a 24 hour marathon of Warhol

like I said, there were two people who paid to sit through it....

unfortunately the cinema had to close, but you can probably guess why
 

william_kent

Well-known member
that cinema did try incorporating as a "club" so that they could screen Salo, but somehow that never worked out and we ended up watching it on a dodgy VHS and afterwards me and the guy I watched it with looked at each other and remarked 'interesting, but I will never watch that again" or something to that effect, amazing that you can buy it on blu-ray on amazon nowadays, times have changed....
 

catalog

Well-known member
I do really like solaris as well, but I've only seen it the once and was very out of it. But in some ways it is more interesting, yes. It goes somewhere you are not expecting and is not really anything to do with "space" and the confrontation of the alien, or collapse of time.

Whereas 2001 to me is just the blueprint for a lot of other films. It's dealing with the same issues as, say, Alien and Terminator. And it's got that epic scale, particularly the second to last bit with HAL and just the sound and music. I love how its all largely silent, then that bit when he's falling through space and it is totally silent. Just so many good bits and they also string together so well.

And the way I approach it is as 3 different films. Cos it definitely is slow and ponderous. But it also nicely splits up into sections.

The Dawn of time sequence this time had me laughing so much. Its so overblown and as I said above, the costumes are so hokey. Close to farcical but somehow still works and definitely you get something extra with it.
 

catalog

Well-known member
that cinema did try incorporating as a "club" so that they could screen Salo, but somehow that never worked out and we ended up watching it on a dodgy VHS and afterwards me and the guy I watched it with looked at each other and remarked 'interesting, but I will never watch that again" or something to that effect, amazing that you can buy it on blu-ray on amazon nowadays, times have changed....
That is how I first saw Salo. We coped by laughing. A lot of people walked out of thd cinema.

I actually put it on again recently after going to a pasolini exhibition in Bologna and thought it was very good, though I didn't watch it all.
 
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