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General: [Sticky] What's the last movie you've seen?
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Continuing in my Giallo revisiting :) a little Dario Argento serie
L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo (1970) (Bird with the Glass Feathers)
I had a better memory of it, I think it got a bit old with time. Overall it is bit boring sometimes and not enough crime scenes. It is the very first Argento, not the best, by far but interesting anyway
6.8/10
Profondo rosso (1975) (Deep Red)
what can I say, This is THE movie together with Suspiria that made me love horror movies. And although I have watched Suspiria many times since, I still didn't get to see this one again. The last time I saw it, it was in French dubbed (horrible) and in the short version. What a pleasure it is to rediscover it in uncut version and in Italian as it should be ^^ It is amazing! Beautifully filmed, nice sound work, fantastic artistic horror scenes, little details, fantastic ending and just fun all along! Argento proved here he was the best in the genre, no doubt!
9/10
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I can't wait to see all Argento's giallos. I've seen only Suspiria so far,which I found excellent!!!
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@Chrisy "Proondo Rosso" Yeah! The best Argento with no doubt in the long version of course (with the excellent reference to Hopper painting!!). One of my favorite movies... The Fantasy Ending of Suspiria makes it a bit different from other gialli even if the direction, the setings and the photography are wonderfull. L'ucello is very good too...
This evenig watched on wide screen Orson Welles's "Macbeth"... Excellent movie even if made with Republic Pictures Movie means and the many problems he had to do it, it remains an incredible and impressive tour de force. 9,5/10. -
@LovelyTV
Profondo rosso is almost equally good, I think the others are less beautifull imo, they are good if you are a fan of the genre, but dont expect them to be at the level of Suspiria. I enjoyed Inferno, Opera and Tenebre very much as well. Phenomena is also ok but again I dont think visually it is at the same level. And his come back with movies like La terza madre was quite a failure imo, didn't really like it -
Essential Killing (2010) 7/10
Vincent Gallo plays a Taliban fighter, captured by the Americans. When moved to a prisoner camp in Poland, he manages to escape after a car crash. And that's when Jerzy Skolimowski's film really starts: how to survive in this foreign environment, in the Polish forest, in mid-winter, with an entire police force looking for you? Not really an action film, but rather a study of a man in fear, trying to overcome the setbacks he is faced with. -
- CommentAuthortheoffice911
- CommentTimeJan 26th 2011 edited
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- CommentAuthorMlpangelina
- CommentTimeJan 27th 2011
I watched The Antichrist (2009) and The Idiots (1998) both by Lars von Trier.
Antichrist: 8/10 I very interesting observe the psychology in the picture, von Trier knows how to use Freud's
concepts like a master. The history is not the point but the way it is shown to us.
The Idiots: 4/10 I really didn't get the point of the picture. I had a big WTF moment. -
Love and Other Drugs, 54/100 - great soundtrack - I love 90's music, great actors, few cute moments and lots of pretty nudity, but overall it was boring as hell.
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Where the truth lies, 62/100 - decent movie, solid acting and nice music.
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El niño de la luna (1989) 2/10
The Rotterdam Film Festival shows a retrospective of the work of Spanish director Agustí Villaronga. El niño de la luna is a fantasy film and like many fantasy films, it is one gigantic plot hole. Music is by Dead Can Dance, and singer Lisa Gerrard even plays one of the main characters. Not a wise decision. There are some great images, but that's it.
El invierno de los raros (2011) 5/10
This Argentinian film has its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival. It's a poor man's Magnolia: a mosaic film depicting six main characters from a small town, who are all stuck with their life. (The pulsating background music is another reminder of PTA's film.) Then small changes take place and they manage to move on. But the film lacks really interesting characters, events or cinematography.
Han jia [Winter Vacation] (2010) 7/10
I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone, but had a good time watching it nevertheless. Director Li Hongqi has been compared to Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismäki and Roy Andersson, but that's too much honour for the moment. Winter Vacation is, however, the first truly ironic movie from China I have seen, and I'd like to see that as a milestone in Chinese cinema. It's about some aimless adolescents in a Northern Chinese town, spending their winter holiday doing nothing. But rather than social drama, it's slapstick in slow motion. One five-year old kid - who is most of the time looked after by his grumpy grandfather - is asked what he wants to become when he grows up. 'An orphan', he replies. Memorable soundtrack as well, with really weird songs that pull the viewer's leg. -
"La Coquille et le Clergyman" (Germaine Dulac, France 1928) From a story of the great poet Antonin Artaud this movie is an experimental and surrealistic movie. A clergyman is in love with a romantic girl he will win again his rival but won't solve his own mystic problems. Germaine Dulac is especialy known for her theoric works on cinema. She was with Xavier Delluc, one of the first person to consider Cinema as an art. And her movies is very artistic. Very strange angles, special effect, image distortion, grat use of fadding... Very good 8,5/10.
"La Glace à Trois faces" (Jean Epstein, France 1927). Adaptedn from a novel of Paul Morand, the story deals with a young rich man, a dandy, who loves three women from differnet origins, they all three love him each in her own way, but he remains without being able to chose or even to know if he loves them trully. Like James Dean, he will die in an accident with his sport-car... Very interessant movie that resumes all the avant-garde cinema of the 20's. Nice uses of travelling, subjective camera, sometimes in a car, strong close-ups, often fading to blurred shots, strange framing, often partial and misfit, strange angles. The editing is very onteressant oo, especialy with the constant changes of time and points of view, and although in the last sequence of the accident, a very imressive part of the movie. A very interresting one 8,5/10.
"Salomé" (Charles Bryant, USA, 1923). Adapted from the Oscar Wilde's play is a movie completly influenced by the "Art Nouveau" The settings and the costumes are purely 20's, very nice. Alia Nazimova plays Salomé mixing erotism and crualty with a rare art. The movie is filmed like a dance of perverted love and death, like a sinister and decadent ballet. Nice One. 8/10 -
True Grit, 90/100 - great movie and I don't like westerns. Bridges was hilarious, the story was interesting, the characters were well written and the little girl acts so well I'm almost not mad she got nominated instead of Mila Kunis.
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- CommentAuthortheoffice911
- CommentTimeJan 29th 2011 edited
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The Piano in a Factory (2010) 5/10
Chinese comedy. An unemployed steelworker and his wife decide to divorce. Their daughter plans to stay with the one who offers her a piano. Steelworker returns with his mates to abandoned factory to build a steel piano. Sort of entertaining, but the film lacks a bit of focus.
When Love Comes (2010) 6/10
Slice-of-life film about a Taiwanese family, with lots of nagging, an unplanned pregnancy and other inconveniences.
Pa negre [Black Bread] (2010) 6/10
Agustí Villaronga's latest film is set in Catalonia, shortly after the Spanish civil war. A 10-year old boy loses his innocence as he finds out the truth about his father's 'ideals'. Too much talking. Based on a book by Emili Teixidor, which is apparently too complex to fit into a film. The film does have stunning landscapes and a powerful atmosphere of violence, secrecy and superstition, though. -
I watched Get him to the Greek (6/10) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (8/10).
Get him to the Greek not really my kind of movie.. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was very nice, not what I expected. -
- CommentAuthortheoffice911
- CommentTimeJan 29th 2011 edited
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@theoffice911
About Carne and Seul contre tous
Are you supposed to always feel sympathy for the characters? Is this what makes a good movie? I dont think the point was for us to feel sympathy for him. His thoughts are indeed difficult to hear (and disturbing) but brilliantly written imo. And the idea of having a voice over the all movie is to get you in his head and hear his crazy thoughts, that's the all concept of the movie. That's not been lazy, that's been accurate with what Noe wanted to achieve. It wouldn't have made sense to stop it half way ^^ -
- CommentAuthortheoffice911
- CommentTimeJan 29th 2011 edited
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- CommentAuthortheoffice911
- CommentTimeJan 29th 2011 edited
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"Nothing Sacred" (William A. Waellman, U.S.A., 1937) A typical Hollywood Comedy with a great Carole Lombard very funny. She's Hazel Flagg a young girl who has only few time to live cause of irradiation with radium. But her doctor (always drunk) made a bad diagnostic. At the same time the famous journalist Wally Cook (Frederic Marsh) makes a great failure he mistakes a boot-shoe for a millionaire great sultan... he's in big disgrace ! But he learns the tragic destiny of Hazel and pick her back to New-York. But Meanwhile Hazel has learned she's in a perfect health and when he comes she can't tell him !! She become a symbol of courage, all the country cries to her tragic fate... Not the best Wellman Movie at all but nice. 7/10
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Paradise Girls (2004)
Interesting study of cultural differences but overall also quite boring, I almost felt a sleep
6/10
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Wasted Youth (2011) 7/10
Loosely inspired by the events that triggered the Athens riots in 2008, this film shows a day in the lives of two inhabitants of the Greek capital: a sixteen year old skateboarder and a police officer in a midlife crisis. Slowly the tension builds up to their confrontation. It's the portrait of a city, a country suffering from an economic crisis, and a generation conflict.
Post Mortem (2010) 8/10
Very similar to Chilean director Pablo Larraín's previous film Tony Manero (see page 27 of this topic) in both setting and theme. It's 1973 in Santiago. Pinochet's military coup is taking place and bodies are flooding the morgue, but 55-year old Mario, typing the autopsy reports, isn't too impressed; he has his own personal businesses to take care of. Great acting and atmosphere. In the Q&A the director explained that he shot the movie with anamorphic Lomo lenses to get a Tarkovsky-esque feel. And on an autobiographical note, he mentioned that his parents were right wing at the time, and that his films can be seen as his attempt to try to understand such people. And he still doesn't get it, he added. -
Zebraman (2004)
Funny superhero movie and a great hommage of Japanese super hero TV series of the 70's and 80's, bring back lots of memories (we had LOTs of those in the 80's in France). But I have really high expectation with Takashi Miike, the guy has done so many amazing films and always different styles and crazy stuff. With this one I thought some moments were a left down, especially in the humor area, some moments were also a bit slow and the movie is too long imo. Still a must see for all Takashi Miike fan :)
7/10
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"I Married a Monster from Outer Space" (Gene Fowler Jr., USA 1958) Yes, the tittle is one of the most famous of te 50's, but the movie is very enjoying. A race of aliens that had to quit his planet comes to Earth because all their women disappered. They gradualy want to replace all the male of the population of a little town and then get children with women from earth... Marge (Gloria Talbott) has just married Bill (Tom Tyron) but she quickly notices that he's becoming different and soon as she follows him one night she discovers the truth... she married a monster from outer space !! But who will listen to her, who will believe her ?? That's what you'll discover watching "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" !! This pretty good movie is influenced of course by Siegel's "Invasion of the Bodysnathers" but is more clearly another anti-communist movie juste replace "from outer space" by "from SSSR" and you'll understand. Nevertheless the movie is well done, the actors convincing and the suspence and rythm very pleasant. All is not negative with the aliens, when we discover that the one who replaced Bill beginns to learn human feelings and... Love and tells it to Marge !! A good B, for fans. 7,5/10
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Parked (2010) 5/10
First fiction film by documentary maker Darragh Byrne is set in Dublin and features Colm Meaney as a homeless man, living in his car. Unfortunately, it's sentimental, moralistic and predictable.
Hinter diesen Bergen (2010) 7/10
Nice little no budget debut film about a decisive moment in the friendship between two (somewhat fucked-up) Swiss village girls. It's the summer holiday. One of the girls passed her school exams and will leave for the city to study at university, the other failed her exams and will be stuck for at least another year. -
"Steamboat Round the Bend" (John Ford, USA 1935) this little known movie is a good summar of the forcoming art of Ford. He directed it the same year as "The Informer" (about the IRA in Ireland) and "The Whole Town's Talking" a film-noir. "Steamboat" is one of the Three movie he'll make with Will Rogers and the most personal of the three. In this one we can find all the thema that will be found the following movies : a tender and poetic vision of Deep america and some stylic devices like the tribunal, the poursuit (here between steambotes) etc. The editing alternates the action sequences sometimes very frenetic with long contemplative and melancholy sequences especialy along the river. He alternates as well the sequence of humour with the moving sequence very simply and effisciently. A nice movie to discover 9/10
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- CommentAuthortheoffice911
- CommentTimeJan 31st 2011 edited
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Heu... it depends I think... who's the director...
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- CommentAuthortheoffice911
- CommentTimeJan 31st 2011 edited
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So it's a good thing I decided not to watch that one, thanks office!
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Lucía (2010) 3/10
A thirty-something year old woman lives with her degenerating father in an old house in Santiago de Chile. The director is one of those who thinks that boredom and emptiness need to be shown in endless takes in which nothing happens. Adding some sequences in stopmotion fails to save the day.
Carancho (2010) 7/10
Argentinian crime movie about the doomed romance between a young doctor in a public hospital and a shady lawyer who looks for potential clients in Accident & Emergency Departments, or even sets up traffic accidents himself to fabricate insurance claims. Although it's beautifully filmed and looks very professional, it's not entirely satisfactory. Sloppy characters and too much unnecessary violence. -
Tron 5/10. The 5 points are only for the great effects only.
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TRON: Legacy 3D, wow what a movie, story is quite good imo, but the visuals and the music are really stunning! 8/10
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I watched Tron to decide whether to go to Tron Legacy in the cinema. I still don't know. Is the story better than Tron?
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Well, the story is more modern:) I think TRON Legacy is visually and audiually (?) stunning, the 3D effects are a really good addition.
Must-see imho -
Ok, thanks!
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"Laugh, Clown, Laugh" (Herbert Brenon, USA 1928) Wow ! What a movie. The story of a love that could not be. Lon Chaney's (Sr) favorite movie and indeed one of his most impressive and moving (the most?) performance. A very sad story of a love triangle between an old clown Tito (Lon Chaney) a tightrope walker Simonetta (a wonderfull Loretta Young) and a self-indulgent count. "Laugh, Clown Laugh, even if your heart is bleeding" Says Simon the second clown to Tito... Irving Thalberg produced this wonderfull movie, James Wong Howe the famous photographer is here too and how can be a director like Herbert Brenon now completly forgotten when you see a movie like this ?... A must to see. 10/10.
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Circus Fantasticus [Silent Sonata] (2010) 4/10
Silent movie (which feels very unnatural) set in a Balkan-ish warzone. A traumatized family regains hope after a circus encamps by their house. It's supposed to be magic-realistic, but it feels artificial and naive.
Finisterrae (2010) 7/10
Sergio Caballero's debut feature film is a road movie about two ghosts on their way to Santiago de Compostela and then Cape Finistera, the final destination for pilgrims on the Way of St. James. They are tired of being in Limbo and hope to revive. It's like an art house version of a Monty Python sketch. Not really a film to be recommended, but it's a brave experiment by a mad director. The trailer reveals the weirdness:
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Fair Game, 60/100 - it was ok. Naomi Watts was pretty good and Penn was excellent. It's a good movie, certainly better than recent movies about related subject eg. Green Zone. But it's nothing special.
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127 Hours (2010) 8/10
Wonderful film, both entertaining and sometimes tough to watch, brilliantly working around the restrictions of dealing with one character in one location. Too bad that the ending isn't exactly a well kept secret. -
"Was in theater this evening "Sleut" (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, USA/UK, 1972). The last movie of Joseph Mankiewicz, and his last marsterpiece. Un pure jewel of manipulation, a tour de force of directing and acting of Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier... A must 10/10.
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Oh my god! RDPL55 has watched a movie I saw too! What is the world coming to. Oh, and I totally agree with your opinion.
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Blue Valentine (2010) 7/10
Quite a nice film about the beginning and end of a relationship of two people who, as it turns out, did not know each other well enough when they got married to realise they had different expectations. Convincing actors. But it does drag on a bit too long. -
Musanilgi [The Journals of Musan] (2010) 5/10
Sort of documentary-style social drama about a North Korean defector in South Korea, who is being discriminated and has trouble finding a job.
Marti, dupa craciun [Tuesday, After Christmas] (2010) 6/10
Romanian film about a married man who's fallen in love with another woman. It shows his struggle to decide what to do next, but as there is no development in the characters, nor any action, it's not very exciting.
Ovsyanki [Silent Souls] (2010) 8/10
A film that borders on cultural anthropology. The wife of a factory owner of Meri origin dies and her husband prepares for her ritual cremation. Russian director Alexey Fedorchenko turned this story into a wonderfully melancholic and cleverly told road movie. -
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Moua, not very thrilling and too conventional
6/10
The Jacket (2005)
Not bad, nice story telling and story even if it has a few plot holes
7/10
Let Me In (2010)
Not bad for a remake, but still, was it necessary? what does this movie bring more than the original? nothing. Plus some things were less good, didn't like the addition of the cop (why? it was a stupid and failed attempt to add a more "personal" or "american" touch) and I enjoyed the atmosphere in Let the right one in a lot more
6.5/10
Black Christmas (1974)
Good surprise, nice horror flick!
7/10
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- CommentAuthortheoffice911
- CommentTimeFeb 4th 2011 edited
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The Resident, 58/100 - tons of horror movie cliches and the whole resolution is rather sily, plus the movie has enormous holes in the story - especially the backstroy of the vilain, the ending is too abrupt and the obligatory chase near the end of the movie bored me so much. But the cinematography is very good and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's acting is fantastic, too bad the movie is not worthy of his performance.
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Black Swan - 9/10 - beautiful, captivating movie with wonderful performances, splendid music and again Aronofsky as a masterful director whose movies leave you speechless and with that strange feeling in your stomach (at least I felt that way). Last 30 minutes were breathtaking.
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- CommentAuthormarinaraujo
- CommentTimeFeb 4th 2011 edited
Splice - It sounded promising and it has a rythm which never makes you feel bored. But it didn't bring anything new and some scenes were really unnecessary. 6.5/10
Happy Together - Nice dramatic story with some memorable scenes and a very unconventional development. 7/10
À Bout de Souffle - I coudn't expect less from such a classic, it's so good to watch and the dialogues are so perfectly real... really great stuff! 8/10
Mulholland Drive - Wow. It was just another very interesting plot until its final minutes, which completely amazed me... It's one of that films which leaves the ending open to interpretations, and I particularly love this kind of film. Gonna watch this one a second, third time for sure. 9/10
Mononoke-hime - Fantastic film with an amazing message. My favourite from Miyazaki so far. 10/10 -
"Underworld USA" (Samuel Fuller, USA 1961) Great thriller with nice directing (the last sequence is very impressive and surrealistic too). Very good Acting Cliff Roberton and especially the women roles that are fantastic (Dolores Dorn and Beatrice Kay). A very dnynamic use of the camera with many original movements and shots, good editing alterning close-ups, wide shots, good action sequences (the murder of Gila) etc. The dialogs (written by fuller too) are very sharp and sometime very crude. Fuller at its best. 9/10.