Film What's the Last Film You Saw? v. Tell Us What You Thought!

[panic in paradise]

pah

Lucifer Rising
8/10

" Lucifer Rising exists as an intersection between two filmic ideas, and it is within this intersection that the film gains it's power: more than any other film, Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising is about spectacle and hypnosis.

From a level of spectacle the film is pure ritual, literally and figuratively. Juxtaposing mythological images of ancient Egyptian Gods with contemporary Thelemites, Anger delineates the progressive nature of time in order to present to the spectator the necessary elements of the ritualistic form his film is taking. But what makes the ritual appealing to the audience is divorced from this esotericism--it's the nature of the films' aesthetics. Anger's level of artifice is exemplary; hyper-pervasive primary colors permeate every frame, shockingly electrified negative images pop up for brief moments, highlighting both the phenomenon of nature (lightning, volcanic eruptions, the birth of an alligator/lizard) and the exclamation points of banal events. "

ESOTIKA EROTICA PSYCHOTICA

 

[addictivepersona]

High Anxiety (1977)

Fairly humorous at times, but other times it left me wondering what the heck was going on. Worth the watch and will have to rewatch at some point--Now that I know what "high anxiety" is. ;)

 

[coelophysis]

Criterion Collection thread, imo.

 

[MrGrunge]

Stray Dog - A rookie cop must track down the man who stole his service pistol. Stray Dog is a film noir police procedural and one of the precursors to the 'buddy cop' genre. I really don't have much to say about the film - it's one of Kurosawa's earlier works and, like Mifune's character, it feels amateurish at times. That's not to say that the film doesn't have some serious strengths, it just doesn't have the meticulousness in story and cinematography of later Kurosawa pieces. The first hour of the film seemed to drag on a bit, but it picks up pace after that before a well-filmed and very satisfying conclusion. Stray Dog has hints of Kurosawa's future greatness, but the film itself (while influential and groundbreaking at the time) is only decent.

The Bad Sleep Well - A man seeks revenge against an unscrupulous businessman by secretly infiltrating his professional and personal lives. The Bad Sleep Well is an incredible movie. Filmed just before Yojimbo, Kurosawa was at the height of his creative momentum and it shows in every frame of every scene. Perfection from beginning to end. Without a doubt The Bad Sleep Well has made it to my Kurosawa Top 3 - it's just so fucking good.

 

[Max Power]

Criterion Collection thread, imo.

u mad?

 

[MrGrunge]

It's cuz I've been spamming the page with Kurosawa and almost every single one of his films has a Criterion release.

Speaking of which...

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail - Based on a Japanese folk tale, an outcast feudal lord and his six loyal military attendants attempt to cross the border into friendly territory disguised as monks. Apparently I was wrong when I said I'd seen all of Kurosawa's period films - this one managed to slip by me. It's only 60 minutes long, has a couple of very strange scenes, and is only the third film Kurosawa ever made but it still manages to tell a substantial story with lots of humor and suspense. For some reason, it feels like a more mature work than Stray Dog which was made a 3 years (and 7 films) later.

 

[Jean-Paul]

ooo, this thread is good for ideas. esp. mr. grunge. i tried the yellow sea, but it didn't grab me like the chaser. i'm going to give it another try. i've also got to finish up on my chan wook park and takashi miike.

any opinions on fruit chan?

i've seen recently: WEST OF MEMPHIS: totally loved it, totally into the entire wm3 ordeal. i love damien echols.
DOUBT: phillip seymour hoffman plays a priest accused of fucking around with a kid by meryl streep, this power bitch nun and they really serve the drama
ADAM: a young man with aspergers meets a woman and blah blah love is hard when you have aspergers. i don't like the woman at all. anyway, the character of adam was so endearing to me that it was definitely worth it.

 

[coelophysis]

u mad?

lol no. And I actually didn't realize Criterions were being mentioned in here. I just sorta stormed into the thread on a mission to play on the words of the title.

 

[L2R]

zero dark thirty

top production, but it's hard to feel tension when you know what's going to happen.

 

[MrGrunge]

ooo, this thread is good for ideas. esp. mr. grunge. i tried the yellow sea, but it didn't grab me like the chaser. i'm going to give it another try. i've also got to finish up on my chan wook park and takashi miike.

Yeah, The Chaser seemed like more of a straight-up action film whereas The Yellow Sea is a bit slower-paced, but I think The Yellow Sea is the more technically impressive of the two. If you haven't already you should add Jee Woon Kim to that list, too.

any opinions on fruit chan?

I've only seen his 'Dumplings' segment in Three...Extremes and I don't remember much of it, so I've got no opinion.

 

[Jean-Paul]

BIG BANG LOVE, JUVENILE A
okay. i loved this....so much. so much. SO MUCH. AND I COULD ONLY FIND IT ON YOUTUBE. what program is best for ripping from youtube?

thanks for the suggestion mr. grunge, i was kind of hoping for some.

 

[DarthMom]

I saw "here comes the boom" a documentary on mixed martial arts fighting starring Paul blart , an apparent mall cop. It was really really inspirational how far he came from defending shopping centers.

 

[Max Power]

I saw "here comes the boom" a documentary on mixed martial arts fighting starring Paul blart , an apparent mall cop. It was really really inspirational how far he came from defending shopping centers.

DM, pls don't troll our forum.

 

[DarthMom]

No seriously. I actually watched it. I think I've run out of movies.

 

[Pill2Chill]

'battleship'

God that was aweful.

 

[Carl Landrover]

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)




Really impressed with this movie. Great animation, great story; an overall enjoyable movie. Had good humor, good characters, and was paced out well. Didn't drag on (lol drag-on) at all. Wasn't sure what to expect from it, but was glad I watched it. This is the third animated movie I've seen this year, the others being Toy Story 2 and WALL-E and all of them have been fun movies to watch thus far. Kind of surprised I put off seeing them for so long.

 

[MrGrunge]

Dodes'ka-Den - A film depicting the lives of a diverse group of people living in a landfill. This particular Kurosawa film is infamous for prompting the director to attempt suicide after its utter financial failure (despite the fact that it received a Best Foreign Picture nomination). It's also the first Kurosawa work to be filmed in color. It's also one of the best films I've ever seen (even amongst the Kurosawa catalog).

In 2 hours, Kurosawa manages to tell a story about love, hatred, guilt, shame, fear, joy, ignorance, pride, hope, depression, loyalty, beauty and about a hundred other themes that I can't be bothered to list. It's got humor, drama, romance, horror, suspense, thrills, chills and even the kitchen sink. There's no real continuous narrative - the focus of the film switches between the stories of 5 or 6 different characters that intertwine, creating a very vivid picture of life in the Tokyo slums. In this way it's similar to The Lower Depths, but unlike The Lower Depths the sets are beautiful and varied which help establish the personalities of each of the characters and hint at how they came to live in such a place. The film is dense, but it's rarely confusing or vague and Kurosawa's use of color is as good, if not far better than his later color films like Kagemusha or Ran. Dodes'ka-den will make you think, it'll make you feel, and hopefully it will teach you a thing or two about your own life. For Kurosawa, Dodes'ka-den is a very experimental film, but one that just about anybody can relate to on some level. One of the few films I consider to be "just about perfect".

 

[L2R]

i'm jealous of grunge's kurosawa-thon. i've only the most famous handful of those.

 

[MrGrunge]

^ If you want to watch some, sign up for Hulu+'s free week. Most of his films (except for Ran, Kagemusha [which are on Netflix] and a couple others) are available for streaming. I think I might actually keep my Hulu+ subscription because they seem to have way more classic titles than Netflix. My queue is full of Kurosawa, Bergman, Kobayashi, Mizoguchi, Godard, Melville, Tarkovksky and a bunch of others which aren't on Netflix at all.

 

[Carl Landrover]

So would you recommend Hulu +? I've got Netflix, but it seems like Hulu+ has a number of titles streaming that NF doesn't have. I'll have to look it up, but do you know how expensive it is? I'm assuming it's fairly similar to NF.