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Post by Jeremy on Feb 3, 2021 19:41:33 GMT -8
I'm limiting myself to one foreign-language film per week, because that's all the effort I'm able to expend to overcome the dreaded one-inch barrier of subtitles. But I've already seen a few since late December - House, Fantastic Planet, Crouching Tiger, A Town Called Panic - more than I've ever watched in a typical year.
Today I watched Eyes Without a Face, a creepy French film from the early '60s. Though not especially riveting, it holds up very well as a horror drama, with fine performances and a disturbing atmosphere. I did choose to fast-forward through one scene (those of you who've seen the film can guess which one); did not expect that level of gory violence in a film from sixty years past. Must be a French thing.
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Post by guttersnipe on Feb 4, 2021 1:19:05 GMT -8
Excellent, one of my absolute all-time favourite films. It might get more mileage out of blank faces and snaking corridors than any other picture. Its Grand Guignol style and emphasis on the moving image mark it as deeply indebted to the silent era, which shouldn't be a surprise as Franju's formalism comes via Feuillade.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 4, 2021 6:49:29 GMT -8
Good point about blank faces - Édith Scob was excellent throughout the film, conveying lots of emotion despite her limited facial language. And she really sells the film's disturbing climax.
I had found an English dub of it online (under the title The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus - a shlocky name that was clearly meant for American marketing), but the video quality was pretty crummy. Anyways, I decided it would be best to watch the film in its original language, to get the full experience from the actors, and it was the right choice.
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Post by Jay on Feb 4, 2021 21:55:20 GMT -8
But I've already seen a few since late December - HouseHA_U_SU.
It's a fine film and all the more entertaining and weird when you are viewing with someone who can read Japanese captions.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 5, 2021 10:49:13 GMT -8
Part of me feels like an English dub of House (or Hausu, if one prefers) would have been inadvertently hilarious, and make the bizarre film even bizarr...er.
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Post by Jay on Feb 5, 2021 11:07:49 GMT -8
I'm not sure, really, that it's capable of being much stranger than it is. I mean, I saw the Criterion Collection trailer and was sold on it but.... well, denizens of CT, what do you think?
(HA_U_SU)
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 7, 2021 21:13:05 GMT -8
Watched The Third Man recently. I can definitely see how the film broke new ground with its visual style and cinematography; it's certainly unlike most other films of its time period. The story unfolds well, with good balance of tension and humor. Great casting, too - Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles (in very different contexts than they were in Citizen Kane) are both excellent. Interesting as well to see a young Bernard Lee, over a decade before James Bond was a thing.
My main issue with the film would have to be the musical score - the excessive use of zither was clearly meant to invoke a creepy atmosphere, but nowadays it feels like something out of SpongeBob. Not a huge problem, but it did become distracting and irritating after a while.
The other issue is that the print of the film I watched did not have the best picture or sound quality. I don't want to hold that against the film itself too much, but it did make for a choppy viewing experience in spots. I assume there are better prints available, but I usually expect better from TCM. (For those wondering, I watched the original, uncut British version, not the American cut.)
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Post by ThirdMan on Feb 8, 2021 11:45:31 GMT -8
I love the zither. Love it.
Anyways, I'd imagine the best print of the film would be the Criterion Blu-ray, which you might be able to borrow from your local library (I think it's out-of-print for purchase).
Not sure about the image quality of the Studio Canal Blu-ray.
Yeah, TCM can be hit-or-miss in how they present vintage movies.
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Post by guttersnipe on Feb 8, 2021 16:11:32 GMT -8
I remember having a mini barney with unkinhead backaways after remarking that I thought the score was about as appropriate as soundtracking a Western with happy hardcore.
It then segued into the age-old argument regarding authorship, because I maintain that the only scenes that people really talk about are the Welles ones (introducing Lime in the shadows, the infamous ferris wheel and the sewer chase), which adds fuel to the idea that he directed those scenes himself.
And I often state that said sewer chase has an immediate forebear in the previous year's He Walked by Night, so similar is it that you'll find it referred to about seventy times on its IMDb reviews page.
Nonetheless, because I feel like I'm always putting it on the ropes, I do like the film a lot.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 8, 2021 21:28:23 GMT -8
Yeah, I remember some discussion about the film on the old forum. On the whole, it does seem to be pretty influential, even if many of its individual attributes had been utilized in the past.
Interestingly, there seems to be a lot of divided opinion about the musical score. It certainly is distinctive, but it never quite clicked with me as the appropriate score for the film itself.
When I rewatch the film - which I will certainly do at some point - I will try to find a better print. (Although I do not own a Blu-Ray player; I think I've owned the same DVD player since the early 2000s. Technology was never my forte.)
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 14, 2021 7:56:18 GMT -8
On the block this weekend: the directorial debuts of two guys named David!
I watched the original Alien trilogy for the first time recently (I had seen part of the first film a long time ago, but never all the way through). Like many people, I really enjoyed the first two films (#1 slightly more than #2, due to its great atmosphere and claustrophobic horror), and I didn't care much for the third.
Honestly, I kind of hated the second half of Alien3. The mishmash of the horror elements from the first film and action elements from the second - plus excessive amounts of graphic gore - did not work at all. It did not help that the characters had such little personality, and most of them looked pretty similar (bunch of bald men; heck, even Ripley doesn't look too different). And the CG alien has aged pretty badly; the early '90s were a rough time for the CGI-vs-animatronics tug o' war.
I know there's a longer cut of the film (supervised by Fincher) that has a better reputation, but I'm not too enthusiastic about sitting through another version of this (especially not one that's even more violent). Not too keen about continuing with the franchise either. Oh well.
Another disturbing and graphic (but much better) film I watched this weekend was Eraserhead. This is actually the first David Lynch product I've seen outside of the Twin Peaks 'verse. While it wasn't totally my speed, I did enjoy the film's twisted take on fatherhood and its deliberately paced shocks and scares. The film is demented, but apparently not quite as excessively gross as some of Lynch's other films. I was bored in spots, but effectively riveted in others, so overall this leans positive.
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Post by Jay on Feb 14, 2021 11:49:09 GMT -8
~In Heavennnn, Everything is Fiiiine~
Eraserhead is worth owning for the incoherent director's commentary. That being said, Lynch claims it's his most spiritual film and then routinely refuses to elaborate on what he means, but I feel as if I understand it on a larger scale.
I'm curious to hear your take on Hook, actually, because you gave it a 5/10. I've noticed that it's really a generational thing over who responds to it and who doesn't, which is interesting in that most of it is in Neverland and so you don't have a whole lot of cultural commentary. It was possibly also Williams' first half step into a serious role. Nevertheless, I remember drama kids my age doing "RUFIO" cheers and it doesn't seem o stick with those who came after us.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 14, 2021 12:59:06 GMT -8
Had I seen Hook as a kid, I feel like I'd have responded more positively to it (although who knows, I had very particular tastes as a kid, and probably wouldn't have liked anyone mucking around with Disney's version of the story*). It has a sense of childhood wonder to it, but watching as an adult, I felt that Spielberg doesn't do nearly enough with it. It's frustrating in that there are some clever ideas at play (particularly re. the time-tested question of "Can you go home again?"), but what little exploration there is feels pretty shallow.
I don't think it's Williams' first serious role (Dead Poets Society was two years earlier), but he was certainly pushing against type, and he and Hoffman do good work. The rest of the cast is decent with what they're given - and I was amused to learn that Prince Zuko himself, Dante Basco, played the Lost Boys leader.
*After watching Hook, I went on YouTube and pulled up some Peter Pan clips to see if the animated film still held up. It did in the sense of characters and humor... but those Native American scenes are pretty cringe. Understandable why Disney decided to pull the film from the kids' section of the streaming service, though I'm glad they didn't remove it entirely.
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Post by Jay on Feb 14, 2021 13:27:33 GMT -8
That's probably fair. Some of the bits such as Peter's relationship with Wendy are more montage development (MAGGIE SMITH SIGHTING! GWYNETH PALTROW SIGHTING!) than properly given time to breathe and some of the bits rely on your knowledge outside of the film itself. Most of the cast has motivations that are unclear and the Lost Boys individually are just barely distinctive enough to keep them from turning into an amorphous blob. That said, colorful, well-scored, the Peter / Tinkerbell relationship was developed far more than you might expect (Julia Roberts handles it pretty well) and you have Hoffman and Hoskins hamming up the Hook / Smee relationship like two old queens, which is fun.
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Post by ThirdMan on Feb 14, 2021 14:25:54 GMT -8
... scenes are pretty cringe. Oh no, not you, too, Jeremy. I cringe every time I see people use the teenage-slang version of "cringe-worthy". It's completely broken-English, and I'd expect better from you, sir.
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