owen said:
oh and i'll say why i like o lucky man soon if you like
Yes please.
Having posted on this directly before going to bed I then had dreams I met Dominic and we talked about Jean Cocteau films!??! What the...? I often have dreams about strangers, though.
Here's something along the lines of the Rambler's approach, but with comments as suggested:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - I'm sure everyone knows this. My friends tell me Adaptation is much better, but this was more soppy, and, truth be know, I think more than with music I want movies to move me. Endlessly entertaining, IMO.
The Conversation - My favourite Coppola flick, my favourite Gene Hackman flick. I love these paranoid post-McCarthy, post-Watergate US movies. The character of Harry Caul fascinates me no end, and what sound nerd couldn't love the amazing sound work in this?
Passion Fish - A John Sayles drama about a soap actress who loses the use of her legs in an accident and returns to her family home in the South. Soorrrta selfish bitch comes good, but I found it really moving in some way I can't explain, and it's not like a major redemption story.
The Night of The Hunter - The dream like sequences, the weird shifts in pace / tone / genre (?), etc... it makes me think of what people like about Beat Takeshi (I'd go with the obvious - Hana Bi - btw). That scene where the kids have fled and are floating down the river, singing the song, and all the soundstage shots of animals coming to listen.. *tokes on the universe* Jesus.
Down By Law - I should say, having thought I was a big Jim Jarmusch fan, and having watched every one of his movies, I've actually concluded I'm not! Partly its his reputation, though... I don't think he deserves any kind of genius tag at all, and if that wasn't lumped on him I might be more relaxed about his output. Anyway, I do love this one, yeah. The combo of John Lurie, Tom Waits and Robert Benigni rocks my world. Not sure any of them are very believable actors, and it doesn't matter at all. Would've gone with Buick's pick, but no Tom Waits.
This Is Spinal Tap - "Big bottoms / Big bottoms / Talk about mudflaps / My girl's got 'em". Yep. Gets really tedious as it goes along, but that's fitting.
Something by the Coens? Haha.. behold my steadfastly middlebrow movie tastes! Not Fargo, I just didn't really get into any of it beyond the two baddies. Yay Steve Buscemi! Maybe
The Man Who Wasn't There. Unlike most people I thought the UFO scenes rocked it. Sorry, everyone.
The Sweet Hereafter - Heartbreaking stuff about a small town where most all the kids are killed in one go in a bus crash. Atom Egoyan or whoever... I haven't seen it since it was in a film festival in NZ... 97 or 98? I wonder what I would make of it now. I've watched 100s of movies since.
La Haine - What needs to be said about this? Just a simple drama really, about 3 young guys in the slums of Paris and the culture surrounding them.. You either get into it or you don't, another one that friends have always argued me down on, because it's not particularly inventive or anything.
So, to the formal inventiveness pick. I've seen many art movies, from Jodorowksy to Lye to Svankmajer, but I'll stick with my middlebrow selections and go go with Buster Keaton's
Sherlock Jr. I saw it in a big old theatre (the Astor, Melburnians) with a live score and was blown away. Spent the whole time veering wildly between laughing & wooping and boggling at the technical side of it. The sequence where Buster Keaton jumps off things and the scene changes around him while he's in mid-leap! Imagine trying to shoot and edit that in the 20s! And so
purposeful too - not just idle mucking about.
Ooh, no room for a Tsui Hark film? Ah well...