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Well, I just finished up watching the movie Punch Drunk Love. Ok yeah, everyone knows this movie, but it has a very strong experimental streak running through it and is often called "an arthouse Adam Sandler movie" so I reckon that gives me license to talk about it here.

This really ranks up there with some of my favourite movies. I've seen it a whole bunch of times. The film's writer-director, Paul Thomas Anderson, is probably my favourite filmmaker, and definitely among the best of his generation. There's something about his movies that means I could just watch them and talk about them forever. They all have such an independent arthouse sensibility yet also recall classic Hollywood in the best way possible (the Goodfellas meets porn industry tale of Boogie Nights, the Citizen Kane in the old west through Kubrick's lens of There Will Be Blood...this is simplifying and making stupid comparisons but what you get my point).

Punch Drunk Love is no exception. It's sort of a closeup look at the Adam Sandler movie persona,  that immature, mumbling child of a guy who is prone to a little violence now and then, who still manages to charm the girl (with some persistence). All this is there, but it's magnified. With the character of Barry, his mumbling childishness becomes a much more real and crippling lack of self-esteem, bubbling over into outbursts of violence (he smashes a window at his sisters house when she jokingly calls him gay, smashes up a restaurant bathroom and more). In contrast to the usual Sandler roles who live it up in an average joe fantasy (see Sandler as marine biologist in 50 First Dates), Barry owns his own business, but lives a lonely life in his stark apartment calling sex hotlines. 

So thats all good and interesting, and much has been made about how good Sandler is in this movie. And I love all those things. But Punch Drunk Love is also such a FEAST. Visually, it's simply beautiful. The sets have a very neon and strip light feel to them, it works perfectly for the LA setting, which makes Barry's deep blue coloured suit and Lena's colourful dresses stand out even more. The details are amazing. Every time he meets Lena, the tie Barry wears is the same colour as the dress she was wearing the last time they met. In the first scene, Barry's assistant (who is wearing a Hawaiian shirt) asks him why he's wearing a suit today as he doesn't usually, to which Barry replies he felt like dressing up smart for work. The next time Barry goes to work, we see in a brief shot, not commented on or highlighted as a joke just a neat visual gag, his assistant wearing a smart suit. After he punches a wall, a closeup slyly reveals to those paying extra attention, that the cuts on Barry's knuckles spell out the word "love". The direction and cinematography is typically superb for a Paul Thomas Anderson, but even for him I think this broke new ground. I think it's here that he really came into his own as a filmmaker. This isn't saying anything bad about his previous movies, Boogie Nights is one of my favourites too, and Magnolia is pretty great (though I have a couple of issues with it), but whilst they're long and sprawling and flawed in their own way, Punch Drunk Love is small and compact. The camera moves around almost all the time, (there's a great shot that follows Sandler back and forth as he paces round his office), but stays still when it needs to. My favourite shot of the film comes when Barry's shadow is seen on a lit up wall as he is running. The music too! Apparently Jon Brion and Anderson were working on ideas for the score whilst the movie was still being written, so that shows how integral the music is to this film. For the most part, the score is pretty percussive and does a good job of keeping the audience on edge. Now and again some sweeping string will introduce the refrain of 'He Needs Me' from the Popeye movie, and Punch Drunk Love begins to feel like an old Hollywood romance.

Almost.

To sum this movie up, I'll use a quote from the film itself.

Barry: I'm looking at your face and I just wanna smash it. I just wanna fucking smash it with a sledgehammer and squeeze it. You're so pretty.
Lena: I want to chew your face and I want to scoop out your eyes and I want to eat them and chew them and suck on them.

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One Day in September (1999): About the Munich massacre, something a lot of people don't know anything about.

Scratch (2001): About DJs/Turntablism/Hip-hop, love this one.


Those are both brilliant recommendations. I remember hearing about Scratch when I was at university and keeping my eye out for it because it sounded great. Finally got round to seeing it a few years later, excellent movie.

oh yeah I've been meaning to see F is for Fake for ages and ages. Sposed to be great.
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get buck jojo
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Hey Jamie, have you seen Tony Manero? I just finished watching it. Film4 is showing it all week. It's really good. It's a Chilean movie about this guy in 70s Chile under Pinochet who's kinda obsessed with John Travolta's character from Saturday Night Fever. And he kills people.
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how does one get buck?
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Some that I really like and are generally considered to be very good:

The Sorrow and the Pity (1969, dir: Marcel Ophuls) - about Nazi occupied France during the Second World war, in particular the French Resistance and the Vichy government of France who collaborated with the Nazis. Extra points because Woody Allen tries to get Annie Hall to see it in that movie Annie Hall.

Shoah (1985, dir: Claude Lanzmann) - 9 hour documentary about the Holocaust that does not use any archive footage. Lanzmann visits places across Europe, including former death camps, meets victims now living all over the world, witnesses (including now grown up Polish farm boys who would shout things at trainloads of Jews as they went past on their way to Treblinka) and even the perpetrators (he tracks down a former concentration camp guard and secretly films him). 

Waltz with Bashir (2008, dir: Air Folman) - An animated documentary about Folman's own experiences of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. An absolutely superb film, and completely unique in execution.

Instrument (1998, dir: Jem Cohen) - Jem Cohen has been following the band Fugazi around since their beginnings, culminating in this brilliant film. Maybe only interesting to fans of the band, though I think it's one of the best rock documentaries around, showing the unique position Fugazi forged for themselves, and completely eschewing the usual 'talking heads' mode of rock music films.

Encounters at the End of the World (2009, dir: Werner Herzog) - Herzog documents the people who choose to live in the wilderness of Antarctica, and leaves no doubt that he will not come up with another film about penguins.

Grizzly Man (2005, dir: Werner Herzog) - I think everybody's seen this. But y'know, a guy who went and lived with bears in Alaska makes for interesting documentary subject matter.

Touching the Void (2003, dir: Kevin Macdonald) - Joe Simpson and Simon Yates tell the story of their perilous climb, terrible accident and unbelievable escape from a mountain climbing trip in Peru. Joe Simpson's book of the same name is a great read too.

When We Were Kings (1996, dir: Leon Gast) - About the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Norman Mailer's there too!

Capturing the Friedmans (2003, dir: Andrew Jarecki) - Intimate home video footage tells the story of a family ripped apart by allegations child molestation in the 80s.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse (1991, dir: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola) - The legendary story of the making of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Watch as Coppola slowly goes insane, Brando turns up fat, sets are destroyed by storms, water buffalo are slaughtered, Hopper is on drugs, Sheen gets drunk and cries, and the Filippino army take all their helicopters away mid-shot.

1991: The Year Punk Broke (1992, dir: David Markey) - On the road with Sonic Youth and Nirvana in 1991!
 
No Direction Home (2005, dir: Martin Scorsese) - Scorsese on Dylan.

Man on Wire (2008, dir: James Marsh) - A french wire walker plots to throw a wire between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and walk across in the 1970s. Hiring a team of accomplices, he manages to do it by fooling security guards and evading police. A wonderful story, brilliantly tense, and just...wow!

The Fearless Freaks (2006, dir: Bradley Beasley) – The story of one of my all time favourite bands, the Flaming Lips. Again, perhaps only of real interest to Lips fans, but it’s a great (and wonderfully implausible) story nonetheless.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005, dir: Jeff Feuerzeig) – Perhaps one of the few indie rock documentaries that really would interest just about anyone and not just fans of the subject, mainly because of the incredible story of Daniel Johnston himself, a guy who recorded songs in his bedroom on a tape recorder, whose lo-fi pop became a little bit famous when he blagged his way onto MTV and then his t-shirt was later worn by Kurt Cobain. Also he suffers from manic depression and at one point is flying in a plane with his dad and throws the keys out the window causing them to crash.


I can't think of any documentaries on Russia or the Russian revolution. Frisky Skeleton mentioned Potemkin (maybe they were joking cos its not a documentary, but well worth seeing anyway, as are Eisenstein's other two main films about the Russian Revolution: Strike and October: Ten Days that Shook the World).  Oh, there's Man With a Movie Camera, a 1929 silent experimental documentary about life in Russia. It's probably available online somewhere. If you're interested in World War 2, the World at War series narrated by Lawrence Olivier is a classic, and Night and Fog is probably the first documentary film about the Holocaust.

I've heard good things about Hoop Dreams and King of Kong, but haven't seen them. And y'know you've also got your Michael Moore documentaries whic are very popular and pretty entertaining, but I wouldn't nessecarily put them up on a best of list.
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I hope for a day when people call him 'The Hoff'.
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I just watched Synecdoche, New York and it was good. It's a film by Charlie Kaufman, who is pretty famous and I am surprised this wasn't more of a hit than it was because I remember Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind was pretty big? Maybe that was because it had Jim Carrey in it.


Yeah, Jim Carrey in the starring role without a doubt helped Eternal Sunshine's chances, though the story shouldn't be discounted either. People getting their memories erased? A guy getting his memory erased and then changing his mind halfway through and running around in his own mind? Great! A guy directing a real-time play about his life, culminating in a huge set of New York built in a warehouse? Yikes.

As for Kaufman himself, I'm not sure his name alone would sell a movie amongst the set that don't so much pay attention to such things. I found the marketing for the film pretty interesting (it definitely falls squarely in the "how the fuck would you market THIS?" category"). In the U.S, the posters featured a picture of the city built inside the warehouse, looking pretty cool and modern. Here in the UK it featured a photo of Philip Seymour Hoffman before a light blue background, with the title in bright pink. It just looks "quirky indie movie". The poster even featured a quote which (seriously) said something along the lines of "the funniest comedy of the year", which as anyone who's seen it will attest is ridiculous as the film, though it does have funny moments, is incredibly bleak. Spike Jonze (who was originally going to direct before handing it over to Kaufman in order to finally make Where the Wild Things Are) and Kaufman even conceived it as a horror movie!

Anyway, I liked the movie very much, though I saw it when it was out in cinemas and need to see it again, and I think it'd be one that benefits from revisiting. I do really like Charlie Kaufman, he's one of the few writers in Hollywood  writing original screenplays and is the clear author of his films, even when someone else is directing them. I like Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine a little more than Synecdoche, though I'm not sure if having Jonze as director as originally planned would have tempered its bleakness at all, or how much of a different movie it would have been.



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I'm just about to watch Black God White Devil. It's written and directed by a fella called Glauber Rocha, and is a big film in Brazil's Cinema Novo period of the 60s. I'll report back on it later.

Master Tea: I love Cinema Paradiso as well. What a movie.

oh oh oh what about French New wave? everyone always goes on about Godard and with good reason (Bande a parte, Breathless, Alphaville)...i think someone mentioned Breathless in this topic. I really prefer Francois Truffaut (most known for Jules et Jim). Day for Night (Nuit l'americain) is one of my all time favourite movies. Plus his only English language role was in Close Encounters.
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yeah a remake of Bad Lieutenant. I wanna catch that one. Has it been out over here yet?

I loved it in Encounters at the End of the World, where in his narration at the start of the film as he's on the plane to Antarctica he says in his steely monotone german accent:

"I was surprised to have gotten this far. The International Science Foundation had agreed to let me film here, even though I made it very clear that I would not come up with another film about penguins."

AND

when he was being interviewed for the culture show by Mark kermode, he got shot!

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Jason Robards was originally going to play the main character, but whilst filming in the jungle he got dystentary, was sent home and his doctor refused to let him go back again. Mick Jagger was also cast in a supporting role, but by the time they'd organised a reshoot, he had to go tour with the Rolling Stones, so the lead role had to be recast and Jaggers character was taken out the script. Apparently one of the native tribe chiefs offered to murder Klaus Kinski, who played Fitzcarraldo, because he was causing so much trouble.
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oooh ooh what about Satyajit Ray? I've only seen the Apu trilogy (Pather Panchali, Aparajito and The World of Apu) but i really recommend them.

and since its his birthday lets get some Kurosawa love going. Hardly obscure, but he's a real filmmakers favourite. Ran, Seven Samurai, happy bday Akira!

and i saw someone mentioned Werner Herzog earlier. I've only seen a few of his movies (everyone's seen Grizzly Man, right?) but everyone should check out Fitzcarraldo. It's about a guy in the amazon rainforest who pulled a ship over a mountain from one river system to another. Deciding against normal movie special effects (oh, Werner, bless you) Herzog actually had a ship dragged up and down a mountain in the amazon rainforest.

oh also I saw this Argentine film recently called La Antena (cheers for the dvd shep). I've been meaning to check it out for a couple of years, I think it came out in 2008. It's more or less a silent movie with a great visual style - almost German impressionistc. An Argentine movie called La Secreta de sus Ojos won best foreign film at the oscars this year so I'm interested in checking that out whenever its released over here.
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He's an American filmmaker, but have you seen anything by John Cassavetes? Shadows, Faces, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night, and Woman Under the Influence are all great great great.

He also starred in Rosemary's Baby.
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Nice. I saw Ghostface at a festival two years ago. Raekwon performed Only Cuban Linx there as well, but I missed it. Enjoy!
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YOU COULD PLAY A FOXY GAME!!
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A friend showed me Limmy's Show a couple of weeks ago. It's brilliant. I particularly like the first Scot to meet a Roman.
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meanwhile, when I hitched, I found myself in good company:


I know what I'd rather do ;)
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I have a friend who's travelling and working around Australia for 7 months or so right now. I think he's hitchhiking a lot (something I've only done a few times and wouldn't completely endorse, but hey it's cheap! Also I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be a murderer, so it's the driver who should be worried) and is just falling into work. One of the guys he hitched with was a farmer and needed someone to help out, so my mate got a job there and then.

I've never been to Australia, so I don't know what transport is like there in terms of cost, but as far as accommodation goes if you're ever able to make friends and stay with them instead of a hostel, plus figure out a few cheap and easy recipes that you can buy ingredients for at supermarkets you'll save a bunch of money over time. If you're in a city, within reason I try and walk everywhere instead of spending money on the metro or buses. For flights I've used expedia.co.uk, if you return on the day you departed, ie. leave on a Monday, return on a Monday, it's usually cheaper. 

I don't know much about it, but I've spoken to people who have flown internationally on military planes, which I would have thought is cheaper, but I really don't know about that. Worth a look though. What are your plans? How long do you think you'll be going for etc? Is it definitely Australia you're going for, or are you just looking to go SOMEWHERE ELSE?
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I walked past a stripclub in Lima, and there was some sleazy looking motherfucker trying to get customers in there.

"Girls! Girls! We have girls!"
I slow down and take a look at the depressing, ugly, broad shouldered woman in a bikini standing next to him.
"Not her, we have better inside!"

I didn't go in.
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Climbing a 6000 metre mountain is definitely one of those things I could never have predicted doing. I think it cost us about 50 pounds to hire the guide and equipment (water proof overcoat and over-pants, hard snow boots, crampons, ice picks, rope...) as well as food and use of 2 refuges on the mountain to sleep in  for the 3 days we were there. It was ridiculously difficult as well. In La Paz the altitude meant you got tired just walking up a flight of stairs, so even the base of the mountain was very tiring. Upon reaching the high camp on the second day, we slept through the evening, then woke up at 2.00am so we could start our climb to the summit. Hours and hours of climbing up in the dark was one of the strangest things I've ever done, I had all these random thoughts looping around my head the whole time. At one point we could see the whole of La Paz, all lit up, way off in the distance, surrounded by darkness. The most terrifying thing for me were the numerous caverns and ravines in the ice. You'd be walking in the pitch black with just your head torch to light the way, and this huge gaping hole would just appear and you'd have to jump over it. Nearer the top, things were a bit more tricky, with huge drops on one side and an extremely uneven surface, and I'd be so tired I would keep falling over at random.  On the way down, too, Steve and I would just deck it every few minutes, tripping over our ropes, our icepicks or sometimes just slipping, we were so tired. When we got back to the high camp Steve spent a good 5 minutes vomiting. It really wasnt an easy thing to do, and honestly, until we were nearing the top, I had never entertained the fact that I would be able to do it.

As for being mugged in Rio, well, that's just annoying. I was walking along Ipanema beach, probably a little later than I should've been, but everything seemed ok. These 2 guys came over to me and asked me for some a couple of Reais, I didn't actually have any money on me so in my best (worst) Portuguese I told them sorry I didn't have anything. One of the guys then kind of punches me in the leg, which was weird. So after that exchange I wasn't feeling so comfortable, so I began to head back up to the road. Looking over my shoulder, I noticed the 2 guys were doubling back, and before I knew it one of them was right in front of me. He stood on my foot and began talking quietly and quickly (I didn't understand what he was saying) and then his hand went through my pockets. I was about to push him or hit him or something when I noticed the knife pointed at my stomach. All I had was my camera, so off that went. I didn't feel scared or threatened really, just completely pathetic. I asked if I could have my SD card from my camera back (the answer was "no", by the way), and then off they went, and I was instructed not to follow them. This was 2 days before I flew home, and after 5 months of moving around the continent, this ranked as the time I felt most like a helpless, clueless tourist.
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