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Topic: big. stinkin. art films. (Read 1982 times)

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jamie

#1 March 23, 2010, 12:11:52 am

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So, what do you think of arthouse movies and films from all over the world? Are you into that stuff? I am, big time, but I am not sure how much of a snob I am being or if I am being pretentious. I am pretty sure I am not but I have been watching films which are really really nothing like hollywood things all the time now. I mean not exclusively, I saw Crazy Heart and stuff. It kind of stank, but it was all right, too. I wasn't buying into the cheesey story!

I made a topic about the dardenne bros and nobody gave a crap so I am just making this topic to talk about this stuff in general if anyone wants to.

What about African movies? you don't hear about them too often. i want to get into that but it's kind of difficult because all the wikipedia links to african film makers are broken. It's a bit easier to find stuff made in the middle east. Anyone watch Kiarostami movies? What do you think of that guy?

I really like watching movies from every place and every time made by anybody.

Drop any reccommendations right here. I'll drop a few of my own soon.

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crone_lover720

#2 March 23, 2010, 12:44:48 am

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they're good posts and you're not being a snob but I don't think we have anyone who knows about this stuff anymore. I am interested enough to watch some of these stinky films you're mentioning but until then I don't have anything interesting to say

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jamie

#3 March 23, 2010, 12:51:26 am

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i've been looking at some film posts from a few years ago. man...everybody's gone.

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FrostyPink

#4 March 23, 2010, 12:51:58 am

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First thing is first, have you seen Un Chien Andalou?

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jamie

#5 March 23, 2010, 12:52:41 am

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Quote from: FrostyPink on March 23, 2010, 12:51:58 am

First thing is first, have you seen Un Chien Andalou?

nope! i'll look that film up right now.

edit: oh it's that one. i didn't know the french title. i have heard of this before but i avoided the eye cutting. i'm guessing i'll be hearing all about it in film classes at some point, though

Last Edit: March 23, 2010, 12:55:52 am by jamie

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Farren

#6 March 23, 2010, 01:47:50 am

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man I feel bad for jamie

I'm not much of a film buff anymore and you guys keep talking about all these movies I've never heard of and I'm still not done with tv shows like the wire, weeds, dexter and sons of anarchy yet while shit keeps coming and coming and coming

fuck I feel like an old dude

DEUCE: MEETING THE URINE UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL AND REALIZING IT'S JUST LIKE ME AND MY PREJUDICES THIS WHOLE TIME WERE COMPLETELY FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF PTTTTHTHTHH GOD IT'S EVERYWHERE<br />DEUCE: FUCK THIS TASTES LIKE PISS<br />PANTS: WHERE IT SHOULD TASTE LIKE COTTON CANDY OR PICKLES<br />DEUCE: OR AT LEAST LIKE URINE NOT PISS

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Shadow Kirby

#7 March 23, 2010, 04:38:33 am

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I'm just going to repost something I posted last month in another topic. Should give you a good selection of Iranian movies.

Quote

That is so true. I had an Iranian Cinema class last year and man, so many beautiful and amazing movies, all done with little to no support of the governmental (at best) and extreme censorship (at worst).

So Swordfish, I could just go and suggest you watch anything by Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf or Panahi but I'll distill it into a list of great works:
Once upon a Time, Cinema, Mohsen Makhmalbaf
The House is Black, Forough Farrokhzad (It's in b&w but fuck you if you are gonna miss one of the most shocking moment of beauty I've ever seen in a movie)
The Cow, Dariush Mehrjui
The Cyclist, Mohsen Makhmalbaf
The Gilan trilogy by Abbas Kiarostami
Where is the friend's home?
Life and Nothing More
Au travers des oliviers (don't know the english title but it's the third of the trilogy)
The taste of Cherry Abbas Kiarostami (BIG recommendation)
Ten, Kiarostami
Five, Kiarostami (you gonna hate that one)
Five in the afternoon, Samira Makhmalbaf (Mohsen's daughter)
Smell of Camphor, Fragrance of Jasmine, Bahman Farmanara (pretty good and intelligent "comedy")

I don't know if a guy who is "not interested" in b&w movies will be interested in Iranian Cinema, but at least one of you guys will take a look.

Seriously man, after the teacher showed The House is Black, there wasn't a single noise in the class. It fucking rips your heart out.

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bonzi_buddy

#8 March 23, 2010, 03:08:47 pm

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what. if it isn't for you jamie who the fuck actually checks out media-forum...! you have only made good topics so far.
i have interest in art films but not enough to actually start watching ones at the moment. like the darlene brothers movies sounded good but i just don't usually watch movies! i may start doing them at some point.

Last Edit: March 23, 2010, 03:15:06 pm by bonzi_buddy

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jamie

#9 March 23, 2010, 03:35:58 pm

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Quote

Seriously man, after the teacher showed The House is Black, there wasn't a single noise in the class. It fucking rips your heart out.

I just watched this. It was sad, for sure. I really didn't know anything about leprosy before watching, besides the really basic knowledge. I had never seen the effects of it like that. I didn't realise it was going to be a short film, though. I would have watched alot more of that if there was any! I looked up Forough Farrokzhad after it to see what else she had made and...NOTHING because she died in a damn car crash a few years later! I'm not much of a poetry guy but I might check out her poems sometime. I thought the last scene in the class room was the best part. It pulled it all together, which it was obviously supposed to do.

I was confused about what was going on because some of the kids were obviously not infected with leprosy, and I just read on wikipedia that only about 5% of the population is susceptible to it. So I guess kids of people with it can live in these leper colonies freely without any danger of catching the disease. Shit I just read there are still thousands of leper colonies around the world, too!

So if anyone is kind of interested in a short documentary/poetry film about leprosy then I think you should check it out. It's only 20 minutes long.

I'm getting a couple other films from that list of yours just now, too. Thanks for re-posting that because I must have missed it before.

oh and one more thing...

hubba-hubba.

Last Edit: March 23, 2010, 03:47:44 pm by jamie

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big ass skelly

#10 March 23, 2010, 03:44:24 pm

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I think I saw some Werner Herzog films a while back and they were good?? I'm not too sure about what an Art House film is but I think they might be. I don't really watch anything smart or art. I only watch 300 and epic movie.

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jamie

#11 March 23, 2010, 04:05:39 pm

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Quote

I'm not too sure about what an Art House film is

I don't really know how to define it exactly either, and it's an area of discussion where people like to get really wanky, but I guess it's a sliding scale which just has to do with a movie's priorities. On one end you've got making money and being more widely entertaining and on the other you've got trying to express and discuss a strong set of ideas or just the film makers expressing themselves over anything else. I just made the distinction so the topic was about art films because there are other topics where people are talking about films that are coming out and it's all the charting stuff so this is a topic for the stuff that isn't in that area.

I think it can be difficult to decide because there are films which on the one hand are mostly concerned with being a good exploration of some ideas but are also very successful commercially, and then there are also guys like say wes anderson (who i think you like right??) who make films that are really unique stylistically but also very commercially appealing.

So in the grey area you'll get movies which hit it big time while never having been made with that intention, and others which pretend like they didn't care about being popular but actually were made with that in mind.

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the_bub_from_the_pit

#12 March 23, 2010, 04:22:21 pm

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TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) just recently held a best of the decade films screening around Toronto and I checked a few of them out, including 'Synecdoche and a Century', which topped the list at #1. You can see the rest of the list here. It was interesting watching the movies off the list because I've never really had any exposure to many foreign films like this (where do you start???); I watched a few Jia Zhangke films which were great.

Anyway if you're really into the art house thing you should check out Synecdoche, it's definitely a film that takes a few solid viewings to be able to soak it all in but I think I've got the main gist of it after my first viewing. There were still some elements that went over my head but I guess I've never really bothered looking them up. It's made in Thailand but has subtitles, and it's incredibly beautiful! Watch it! I'm sure you can find it on the net.

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jamie

#13 March 23, 2010, 05:30:58 pm

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yeah i found that TIFF list a few months ago and I have seen most of the movies on it by now. it's a really good list, i think, apart from one or two things on it i didn't enjoy so much.

jia zhangke rules!!!!! my favourite one is platform which i didn't even get to see the whole of because my subs messed up (do you have a link bubs...) but everything i have seen by him is great i really enjoyed em.

i saw syndrome and a century, too, but i was drinking when i watched it and can't remember the ending so i'll need to see it again. i watched the rest of weerasethakul's movies, too. he's another good guy. there are loads of great movies from asia coming out RIGHT NOW it's pretty cool.

i don't just want to do a series of name drops or whatever but yeah i am pretty excited about most things on that list, it's been a fantastic starting point to get into stuff from all around the world. you can watch a movie from a director that made it onto the list, then from there check out all their other movies. that is hundreds of movies you can be pretty sure are good right there!!

i haven't seen synedoche yet but since you mentioned it i'll get it right away. edit: oh i take it that it's synedoche new york you are talking about?? i'll get this anyway it probably is.

Last Edit: March 23, 2010, 05:33:22 pm by jamie

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jamie

#14 March 23, 2010, 05:36:27 pm

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here is that TIFF list for anybody who is interested in it. i can personally recommend most of these movies! except a couple which stink and a couple which i haven't seen.

it's an overload but what i did was just save the list on my desktop and anytime i wanted to watch a film and didn't have any ideas in particular, i'd just pick one from this and watch. i think that's a good way to look at it.

Hidden content (Click to reveal)

# Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand).

# Platform (Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong, China/China/Japan/France)

# Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke, China).

# Beau travail (Claire Denis, France).

# In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, China),

# Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, France/Thailand/Germany/Italy).

# The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, Romania); Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Hungary).

# Éloge de l'amour (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/ France).

# 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, Romania).

# Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands).

# Russian Ark (Alexander Sokurov, Russia/Germany).

# The New World (Terrence Malick, U.S.)

# Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, France/Thailand).

# Le Fils (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France).

# Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, Portugal/France/Switzerland).

# Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (Agnès Varda, France); In Vanda's Room (Pedro Costa, Portugal/Germany/Italy/Switzerland); Songs from
the Second Floor (Roy Andersson, Sweden/Denmark/Norway).

# Caché (Michael Haneke, France/Austria/Germany/Italy); A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, classified as a U.S. film despite the
director's Canadian nationality.); Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, France/USA); Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan).

# Rois et reine (Arnaud Desplechin, France).

# Elephant (Gus Van Sant, U.S.)

# Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain).

# The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran/France); Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (Edward Yang, Taiwan/Japan).

# Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, Spain).

# L'Enfant (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France); The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin, Canada); I Don't Want to Sleep
Alone (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/France/Austria); Star Spangled to Death (Ken Jacobs, U.S.)

# The World (Jia Zhang-ke, China/Japan/France).

# Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Japan); The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Spain/France/Italy); L'Intrus (Claire Denis,
France); Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France); My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, Canada); Saraband (Ingmar Bergman,
Sweden); Spirited Away (Hiyao Miyazaki, Japan); I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, U.S.)

# Gerry (Gus Van Sant, U.S.).

# Distant (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey); Dogville (Lars von Trier, Denmark/Sweden/UK/France/Germany); The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes
Anderson, U.S.);

# Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov, Russia/France); Demonlover (Olivier Assayas, France).

# Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner (Zacharias Kunuk, Canada); Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan).

# Longing (Valeska Grisebach, Germany); Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea); Vai e Vem (João César Monteiro, Portugal);
Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, U.S./France)

Last Edit: March 23, 2010, 05:42:13 pm by jamie

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GaZZwa

#15 March 23, 2010, 10:05:13 pm

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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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GaZZwa

#16 March 23, 2010, 10:29:18 pm

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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.

Last Edit: March 23, 2010, 10:39:59 pm by GaZZwa

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big ass skelly

#17 March 23, 2010, 10:46:56 pm

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Fitzcarraldo, that's what I saw. I heard some people died doing his thing there with the boat in real life and the lead actor was going to quit the role because of it but werner herzog pulled a gun on him and told him he'd kill him if he quit. that's art.

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GaZZwa

#18 March 23, 2010, 10:58:44 pm

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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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jamie

#19 March 23, 2010, 11:28:01 pm

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Quote

He's an American filmmaker

that's no problem at all! i didn't just want to talk about films in languages i don't understand. i haven't seen anything by john cassavetes that i know of for sure but yeah his name is very familiar. i'll check him out sometime.

Quote

Fitzcarraldo, that's what I saw. I heard some people died doing his thing there with the boat in real life and the lead actor was going to quit the role because of it but werner herzog pulled a gun on him and told him he'd kill him if he quit. that's art.

i think werner herzog is a nihilist or something. also, he made a cop film starring nic cage last year.

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GaZZwa

#20 March 23, 2010, 11:50:30 pm

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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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