Ugetsu, by Kenji Mizoguchi. 9/10, a really good film.
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Ugetsu, by Kenji Mizoguchi. 9/10, a really good film.
Scenes From A Marriage, by Bergman. I'm not sure how to rate it, but I can say it's not one of my favorite Bergman.
Animal Kingdom 8 maybe 8.5/10
Actually Nell (10) felt more strongly than Grace (8) about the lack of incipient nihilism. Grace was of the opinion that, on the whole, the piece was played straight without the usual car crashes and bloodletting that has marked the decline of the US cinema with the onset of incipient nihilism and its worldwide exploitation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calidore
Me, I felt that by definition 'incipience' covers the concept of 'initiation', so 'onset' was redundant. But kids today, eh? Their thinking is sloppy and so is their sentence construction. I blame the parents.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkBastable
:lol:
I watched Eraserhead with the lad the other night. I have seen if before in the 80s, but, except for a few scenes - I'd had a few and my mate insisted even though I was falling asleep - I couldn't remember it.
So we watched it, and I now have an "I watched Eraserhead All the Way Through" badge, and membership to the Pretentious Crap Film Club. I'm still an admirer of Henry's hair though.
I saw "Hannah Arendt" last night. There's not much action; the life of the mind is not quite as "cinematic" as cow-punching. It did appear as if chain smoking cigarettes makes one smarter -- they appear to have worked for Ms. Arendt, who chain smoked throughout the film. I was going to take up smoking and philosophizing (thinking it might help me in my arguments on the "Religious Literature" board), but my girlfriend told me that she wouldn't hang out with me any more if I start smoking.
The movie focuses on Arendt's coverage of the Adolf Eichmann trial for "The New Yorker". It was in her New yorker articles that she coined the phrase, "The banality of evil." The movie used only old TV footage from the actual trial to show Eichmann in his glass caged defendant's dock. It was creepy. Eichmann looked like a banal beaurocrat, but an evil, self centered one. "I was just following orders," was Eichmann's consistant refrain, and, indeed, he appeared to have no personal animosity toward the hundreds of thousands of Jews he sent to death (he was in charge of organizing transportation to the Concentration camps).
Arendt's articles (which I haven't read) focused on the breakdown of morality -- on how in trying times people stop "thinking" -- the ultimate sin for Arendt. This was true not only of Eichmann, but of some Jewish leaders who were complicit in sending their brethren to their deaths, as Arendt reported. The combination of blaming Jewish leaders, and reporting on Eichman as being a banal beaurocrat instead of a monster threw Arendt into a firestorm of criticism from the Jewish community in both New York and Israel. It probably didn't help that she had been an acolyte (and lover) of Martin Heidegger prior to the war, and that Heidegger had joined the Nazi party.
Despite it's non-cinematic themes, the movie is well done. Smokers might want to wait for the video, so they can puff away while watching.
Camus is shown smoking in almost every picture I've seen of him. It is strange that there still remains to extent this association of smoking with sophistication when smoking has to be one of the most stupid things a person can do. I'm a smoker and I experience deep shame lighting up in public.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecurb
I checked an Arendt book out of the library once. It was really tough and I ended up quitting it out of intellectual laziness.
Well, back then they didn't know it caused cancer. It wasn't until the sixties that they started to figure it out. I remember my dad had smoked a pipe and still enjoyed cigars, but when they started informing the public of the dangers of smoking, he quit immediately. He had great discipline. My mom continued, then suffered for years from emphysema.
Anywho. that was just part of the lifestyle then, although there are some dangers in showing this and making it seem sophisticated, as you said. Young people are apparently very susceptible to those images, interestingly. And did you know that if a child plays with/eats candy cigarettes (do they even still make those?) it may increase their chances of taking up smoking?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0618091217.htm
The last movie I saw, is 'Under the Tuscan Sun'...it was on cable, and my son was asleep, and so I finally got to see it.
I felt it was a beautiful movie: there was just the right mix of fantasy, as well as pragmatism - as is life!
I just saw 'Pacific Rim' yesterday I really liked it. Idris Elba was great, he is my favorite actor at the moment and it doesn't hurt how very hot he is. Some of the drama was a bit annoying and I have to admit I was hoping for a slightly bigger ending without saying to much about it.
The leading male was OK (no idea who he is), it was good that he didn't take to much room I think so the others could shine, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman were great scientists.
I don't really drink and definitely not the strong stuff but there was a big drinking game in that movie.
Only God Forgives. 10/10
I saw Rise of the Guardian last night with my nieces. This time they brought the DVD and kept on reminding me that it belongs to them. We enjoyed the movie a lot. 7/10
I watched "Now you see me" on Sunday. I loved it 9/10.
I also watched Beautiful Creatures. Pile of ****e. Book was better
Ran by Kurosawa. Has anyone else seen this? I thought it was astounding, one of his very best.
I've not seen Ran I've seen quite a few of his though.
Last night I watched The Virgin Spring, Bergman, the fourth Bergman I have watched to date:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h82_I...=TLfST1tyU0GIo
I thought it was OK, pretty good. Wild Strawberries and this one I have liked, that Wolf one can't think of the name of it right now and Seventh Seal, were too odd for me.