Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[baboon2004]

I saw A Dangerous Method last week - I expect it was much discussed here at the time of release. Personally I was incredibly impressed. For one thing i never thought I'd rate Keira Knightley in a film, but I have been proved wrong. Viggo Mortensen as Freud was utterly inspired casting, and Cronenberg has clearly not yet lost the ability to spin an entrancing yarn (though I haven't seen Cosmopolis)

 

[IdleRich]

I watched this movie called Franklyn yesterday - the trailer makes it look as though it's going to be a V for Vendetta rip-off but it really isn't.


Worth watching without knowing much about to be honest. And if anyone figures out why it's called Franklyn could they let me know? The name comes up once in passing but as far as I could see it was never mentioned again.

 

[Bangpuss]

Bob le Flambeur by JP Melville. Inspired by American film noir, it sets the stylistic template for the new wave. Like Le Cercle Rouge which started this thread, it's an impeccable piece of film-making from Melville with perfect cinematography, locations, performances, and script.

Interesting story behind it too. Quoth Roger Ebert (RIP):

The safecracker is played by Rene Salgue, who was, Cauchy says, a real gangster. It was not easy for Melville to find successful actors who would agree to work for nothing and drop everything when he had raised more money; Duchesne, who plays Bob, was considered a risk because of a drinking problem. And as for Isabel Corey, whose performance as Anne is one of the best elements of the movie, Melville picked her up off the street. Offered her a ride in his American car. Found out she was almost 16.

Melville is an awesome director and a stone-cold geezer.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

post tenebras lux. read lots about it being controversial at cannes and lacking narrative sense but i thought it all worked. not sure what all the fuss was about, its not exactly holy motors. some great, weird scenes though and a strange slightly surreal mood about it. interesting stuff going on about class, nature, violence, sex, that doesnt really follow normal tropes. its a better terrence mallick type film than to the wonder in any case.

 

[IdleRich]

That's a shame, I was thinking that it WAS gonna be Holy Motors.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i did think while watching it that it was quite a bit like HM but its def not as crazy. it is easier to follow.

 

[Bangpuss]

Upstream Color.

Saw it at Sundance London yesterday, and I'm comfortable in saying it's one of the best, most outrageously inventive things I've ever experienced (alongside the Holy Mountain, Last Year at Marienbad, Eraserhead, etc.).

The fact that Shane Carruth, the guy who made Primer, has had to distribute it himself, with no release as far in the UK as far as I'm aware beyond four festival screenings (and zilch in the rest of the world), is the kind of non-recognition-of-genius thing that compelled Van Gogh to sever his own ear. Shane Carruth is undoubtedly a visionary artistic genius and Upstream Color will stand the test as one of the best movies ever made, of that I'm confident. If David Foster Wallace made movies, and was as good at making them as he was at writing, I'm pretty sure this is the kind of thing he would have made.

The trailer itself is a work of art in itself, but only hints at the madness it advertises.
There are a few movies (off the top of my head) which I guess it could be said to owe a certain debt to, what with its thematic concerns and stylistic palette:

Mullholland Drive
21 Grams
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Three Colours Trilogy
The Tree of Life
Last Year at Marienbad
Primer (obviously)

But if those films are a moderate to strong strain of marijuana, Upstream Color is LSD. It actually feels like being on acid watching it. Horror, beauty, bafflement. What's perhaps so spell-binding is that it doesn't have the kind of forced or relatively dumbed-down metaphysical concerns that 21 Grams or Eternal Sunshine do (and I love both of those films). The stuff about 'sampling' our pasts and reassembling them, which is conveyed through a guy who is a godlike field-recording collector; genetic mutations through animal and plant life; Henry David Thoreau's Walden as a symbolic lynchpin; all of this is played out in a way that doesn't scream out LOOK, I'M A METAPHOR or AN IMAGE. They're not subtexts -- they're central to the film's plot and whole construction. But at the same time, the characters don't just feel like vehicles for expressing this kind of freewheeling show-off art-school pretension. At its heart, it is a very intense love story. And it all comes together like those things do -- reality, spirituality, narrative confusion -- on a very intense trip. With your girlfriend. Argh!

What's additionally beautiful is the fact that Shane Carruth made exactly the film he wanted to make, and only he could have done it. There's nothing better, I don't think, than feeling you're in the hands of a man who has a singular control over such a vast work, from the script to the soundtrack right through to the distribution. And knowing that he didn't compromise, even if it means hardened film critics walk out wondering what the fuck that was all about.

Finally: Owing to the ridiculous way in which it's being distributed (i.e. not at all), Upstream Color is going to be available for download and on DVD pretty soon, in the US at least. I think you should probably watch it if you haven't already.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

its hard to watch interesting films unless youre playing 20 quid at a festival. most of the films ive wanted to see lately seem to dissappear from cinemas really quickly...

 

[Bangpuss]

True, and the experience of going to the O2 and waiting in line for way too long, even though I had a ticket, filled me with so much anxiety and anger and frustration. When the film came on it was worth the hassle, no doubt. But it shouldn't have to be that much grief. Particularly not at the O2. Christ, the organisers ought to have a long, hard think about the venue. What an awful place.

FYI the ticket cost £14, which is about the same as a premium cinema ticket in London. That doesn't make it any better or worse. It just is what it is. I only booked for UC because I knew it was probably the only chance I'd get to see it in a cinema. No way I'd go there otherwise.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

14quid isnt that bad... yeah it is weird that they picked the o2 of all the venues they could have gone with. for an 'indie' festival, it would have been nice if sundance actually did something with actual indie cinemas in london.

 

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

Upstream Color reminded me of 'A Scanner Darkly'. But not as good. Larvae, zombification, embezzlement, pigs, flowers, animal husbandry. Of course it hasn't got any distribution... it's bollocks!

I've watched a lot of films lately, but by far the best has been White Mischief. Sort of like Game of Thrones set in Kenya.

 

[Bangpuss]

I know there are going to be people who hate Upstream Color, either because they think it's pretentious or baffling or whatever. I obviously disagree. And I don't get the comparisons to A Scanner Darkly.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i saw salo at the bfi yesterday. sort of brilliant, but just really, really fucking cruel, severe and disturbing. and disgusting. but i was glad that the kids never looked like they were enjoying any of it so there was little chance of anyone getting off on it, well unless youre like their torturers - i cant think of another film where youre made to feel so repulsed (or forced to really question your role in what youre seeing or why - there were a few laughs at first but they stopped as the film went on - the film is really successful at switching between absurdism and total horror). but the main thing that disgusted me was that all the cast were all children. teenagers, ok, but still children - i wonder what they thought of making the film, during or afterwards. i know it was the 70s and im glad that it never seemed like pasolini enjoyed what was happening, but even so, it made me really uncomfortable, in a way few films have done. i had to take a walk after it ended.

 

[baboon2004]

it's a pretty horrible, soiling film.

 

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

I know there are going to be people who hate Upstream Color, either because they think it's pretentious or baffling or whatever. I obviously disagree. And I don't get the comparisons to A Scanner Darkly.

There are multiple nods to it. Not least:

The plant from which Substance D is extracted.

I don't hate it, just don't think it deserves to be elevated to the cinematographic pantheon as you suggest.

 

[Bangpuss]

It was ages ago I saw it, so don't remember that but I take your word for it.

 

[craner]

i saw salo at the bfi yesterday. sort of brilliant, but just really, really fucking cruel, severe and disturbing. and disgusting. but i was glad that the kids never looked like they were enjoying any of it so there was little chance of anyone getting off on it, well unless youre like their torturers - i cant think of another film where youre made to feel so repulsed (or forced to really question your role in what youre seeing or why - there were a few laughs at first but they stopped as the film went on - the film is really successful at switching between absurdism and total horror). but the main thing that disgusted me was that all the cast were all children. teenagers, ok, but still children - i wonder what they thought of making the film, during or afterwards. i know it was the 70s and im glad that it never seemed like pasolini enjoyed what was happening, but even so, it made me really uncomfortable, in a way few films have done. i had to take a walk after it ended.

Well, it's a film about human cruelty and evil, channeled through the decadent ruins of Italian fascism. I don't think he made it for cheap kicks, although I suppose you never know. To be fair to you, watching it on the big bfi screen must have been an overwhelming experience. I don't think I could do it. School of the Holy Beast was bad enough.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i never said i thought *he* made it for kicks. from what ive read he was at a pretty low point - it shows.

 

[craner]

Fair enough.

 

[Corpsey]

'Salo' is one of those films I really want to see but I never quite feel up to it. The (doubtlessly comparatively very tame) 'Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer' has been sitting on the shelf ever since I bought it.

Depiction of sadism/torture are the worst - even the off-screen torture in 'Funny Games' just made me feel upset and anxious.