Is that the same film?
I was pondering last night the some times great gap between the critics response to a film and Joe Public. Every bodys response will differ but some times one asks "Is it the same film I saw?". I cast my mind back several years to when "The Piano" was released. If you have never watched this preteniouse twaddle I suggest a couple of beers before hand. However when this was first issued it got very posative reviews. A critic in the Guardian, I think; pointed out the discrepency between the reviews
and the nonsense on the screen. Holly Hunter as an elective mute playing a piano on a beach and Harvey Keitel as a bushman gone native - blimey, how could that be taken seriously.French + Saunders did an extremely funny sketch on the beach scene. The director Jane Campions descent in to art house madness starts here. Any body had similar experiences?
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No.
Loved the film then, love it now. I like clever clever arthouse.
Derek Jarman's Sebastiane
"an extraordinary charge of conviction in the staging and acting . . . compulsively interesting on many levels." - Time Out
"universal and compelling" - Channel Four
"Finding hours and hours of a bunch of lithe, Ambre Solaired neckid lads lounging around on rocks, occasionally casting a laconic gaze at another lithe, Ambre Solaired neckid lad who just happens to have lots of arrows strategically stuck in him - Greasy Pin Cushions R Us - to be of rather dubious entertainment value isn't really a shamefully homophobic reaction, is it? Is it?" - Me
The Departed
Derek Jarman and entertainment do not mix. However my wife and I had a similar experience with "the Departed". Topper reviews and we had both been much excieted. DVD on for 10 minutes and the room was silent, 40 minutes later and it was off. Martin Scorsese from "Raging Bull" to Raging Ham. 80% of the acting was over acting and the other 20% was bad. Would you know that from the reviews? You would not. Mark Wahlberg takes gold medal for both bad and ham acting. I wonder if the critics had made up their minds to like it before they saw it?
Lost in Translation
Beyond shite.
I'm with you on that one.
Two hours of "wow isn't Japan weird?" held together by Bill Murray apparently making it up as he went along. I just cannot understand how Sofia Coppola got anywhere in Hollyw... oh.
Catching a drift here......
With the exception of any of the Jarmans, whom I have yet to risk, as my memories of latin at school were not of pleasure, I like all of these. Maybe I should check out the Jarman season on Beeb 2 this week after all.
Didn't like Rambo, Predator versus Alien, Rocky, Lethal Weapon, oh the list is endless. Enjoyed Ratatouillle on DVD on Monday this week.
Not enough Emil!
Loved Ratatouille until the weight of the story switched from the rats to the humans about 40 minutes in. His brother Emil was a brilliant character, making Remy seem less rat-with-a-mission one-dimensional, so why on earth does he only get a total of about four minutes' screen time?
I've got young twins, so I'm forced to watch a lot of this type of fare over and over again. And over again. And again. The one that stands up best to repeated viewings is Monsters, Inc., I've found.
Personally
I'm a Finding Nemo/The Incredibles man. Both work as very clever studies of parenthood and prejudice, respectively.
Jarman's films
awful in my experience - extremely tedious and pretentious.
However - enjoyed Piano and Departed.
Talking of pretentious, boring nonsense - saw Klimt recently. Avoid! John Malkovich acts in a very mannered way in it too (well I suppose he usually is quite affected but this was even worse than normal).
You're so right
about The Piano. Even Jane Campion had to go back and write a novelisation of her screenplay just to make sense of Harvey Keitel's ludicrous accent. She claimed he was from Hull (which explains everything, right?)
The other one for me was The English Patient. My then girlfriend - now my wife - and I chose this as our first date movie; and in a manner not dissimilar to Mark Kermode's story about Breaking The Waves in this month's interview with Rob Fitzpatrick, we were instantly united by the fact that we both thought that it was interminable rubbish.
isn't there something delightful about that though...
the fact that you and the (now) GLW had to bond over. The love of my life (fingers crossed'n'stuff) recently went to see 'No Country for Old Men' on the basis of the 5 star reviews and her love of the works of Cormac McCarthy. It's not that either of us disliked it, but we were both left a little, well, underwhelmed. Perhaps it's just us against the world on that opinion, but frankly, I got such a kick out of the fact that whilst I 'didn't get' the movie as such, and nor did she...we'd both 'got' each other.
As for the English Patient...my dear departed dad said to me one weekend when i came home from college 'Oh, i taped that Enlish Patient on UTV...we might watch it'.
Normally him being a Clint Eastwood kind of fan, i thought 'how, er, nice' and suggested that perhaps we'd wade thru a few other movies first. A number of months passed and he kept on mentioning it, and so we sat down one evening, armed with a big white-chocolate Toblerone between us and a six pack of beer in the fridge, to watch it.
By the second ad-break, we were looking at each other and wondering if, by chance, even 'The Dead Pool' would be on over on TCM...
The Dead Pool
Ouch. I'd forgotten that one. I think I even saw it in the cinema...
Glad we're not alone in our befuddlement over the reception given to EP. That's 'English Patient' obviously, not Elvis Presley...
Jane Campion
As I mentioned in another thread about worst films, her film An Angel At My Table which preceded The Piano was pretty dreadful but critically lauded.
My coat,
I'll get it......
Babel and Crash
Desperate shoehorning into place of three or more disparate stories, none of which had the legs to be worth a movie in its own right. The result: forced, clumsy, annoying.
These people should watch The Wire, for crying out loud. That's how it's done.
Shortcuts
Refer you to possibly one of the best of this genre - Robert Altmans Short Cuts from 1993. All the tales smoothly wind together with the normal Altman stock company of actors. Babel too long and Crash good but not fantastic. The Wire is the buisiness, series 4 more intense and stressfull than the others. Not a happy nights viewing but the highest quality avaliable.
Where to start
1-The Player
2-A Clockwork Orange
3-Moulin Rouge
4-Any Peter Greenaway Film.
Have tried to watch Star Wars and Harry Potter films,Nope Nothing.
Lord Of the Rings just makes me think of R.A.F greatcoats,Dunlop Greenflash and that clip of Genesis era Peter Gabriel dressed as a Pixie or god knows what.
Agree about No Country for Old Men.Think it needs another viewing then again i didn't like Blood Simple first time around.
Inland Empire
Me and my lovely wife sat down to watch David Lynch's Inland Empire last weekend.
I was a huge fan of Twin Peaks and also enjoyed Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive and others so I'm well used to a bit of Lynchian tomfoolery but, good lord, this was a tough one.
We gave up after about 90 minutes on the basis that neither of us was enjoying it and couldn't face watching Laura Dern and Justin Theroux looking worried/scared for another hour and a half.
I hadn't actually read any reviews prior to watching it - quite like sometimes coming to a film without any preconceptions - so it's a bit off the topic but I'd be interested to hear what anyone else thought. Was there a sudden turnaround in the second half with car chases aplenty and some knockabout carry-on style humour. Or did everyone just continue to look worried/scared?
Lynch
After Lost Highway, my wife and I both angrily stumbled into Leicester Square, adamant that David Lynch would get no more of our money ever again. Then I saw The Straight Story - one of his best - but his films since look too similar to Lost Highway for me to dare.
Peter Greenaway - ?
I am glad his name has come up on this thread. He would appear to be under the misapprehension that story telling is too simple for him. Unfortunately it is actually too difficult for him, as he still can not do it. His films define arty masturbation and will be long forgoten when directors he thinks beneath him are rightly respected.
Seinfeld!
Anyone ever seen the Seinfeld episode called "The English Patient"? Elaine is made to see the film twice and utterly hates it, culminating in her screaming "Oh, go to Hell!" to the entire cinema (you have to see Julia Louis Dreyfus' delivery to get the joke) - the Seinfeld writing crew were very good at pricking the pomposity of "vogue" films.
I criticised lost in translation
in another thread so will leave it alone this time.
No country for old men was great but not as good as the best Coen brothers film Fargo. However the scene in the gas station was particularly tense and could rank as a classic cinema moment. Anyone having seen it care to explain the ending to me? This to me let the film down as it seemed abrupt and lacking closure. i maybe need to see it again which i will happily do.
I really wanted to enjoy both Eternal Sunshine and The Royal Tannenbaums but didnt get either of them.
There Will be Boredom
First film I've walked out on in quite some time. The reviews for "There Will be Blood" have been consistently good and Daniel Day Lewis is compelling. Even the memory of "Punch-Drink Love" couldn't deter me. But two hours into it I cracked. As did girlfriend and half a dozen others. Mind-numbingly tedious, no convincing conflict between the characters, no motivation, a wafer-thin story, Jonny Greenwood's sub-"Tilt" screechings as a soundtrack. A waste of time, talent and money. Yet it's been compared to "Citizen Kane". It ain't.
Did he gnash his moustache
and twirl his teeth?
Gnash / twirl
not as much as I'd expected
Oh Dear
Some of my favourite directors taking a bit of a pounding here I see! I remain loyal to Greenaway and Lynch, although Inland Empire does test the patience a bit. I even like some of Jarman's work - The Tempest was pretty good (admittedly he had quite a good scriptwriter for this one!) and Jubilee has some curiosity value.
Agree that the English Patient sucks though. And I still don't like Paris Texas.
Paris Texas
It has all the ingredients of a film I'd run away from, but three that make it impossible for me to write it off. How can you not like a fillum with Harry Dean Stanton in his prime, Nastassja Kinski in a pink cardy and Ry Cooder on acoustic slide?
Can I bring my coat back?
How not indeed? But that's my opinion about most of these vilified above. Still.
Harvo
Harvey Keitel in The Piano will do nicely for the Harry Dean Stanton role, but who's Nastassja's stand-in and where's Wor Ry?
I need all three, I'm afraid, or I'm out of there faster than you can say "Evil Dead 4 is on next door and it only started ten minutes ago."
Oow, Archie.....
You won't be wanting my copy of the soundtrack, then. And does Holly Hunter in her birthday suit really do nowt for you? The 3 year olds must really be wearing you down......
The Kitov Connection
Hmm. I may have to rethink my position now that I have this essential new information. (I've never even seen it - trashing films is much more satisfying that way.)
Paris, Texas
Is a perfect example of a film that is best enjoyed if you know nothing about it. It's a testament to the power of gently unravelling storytelling, with the greatest and most imitated soundtrack in modern cinema.
Peter Greenwaway and Michael Nyman, however: a match made in bore-heaven.
I'll take it away again, then......
The coat. I don't suppose anyone wants a copy of the Nyman soundtracks for The Cook, the Thief etc, The Piano or of his dble CD Best Of (yes, it exists: I bought it in France for 8 euros in a supermarket)
Pretentious? Moi?
Well, they're all on my i-pod.
P.S. I wonder if all the picky correspondents here would like to include Betty Blue in their lists of subjective art house excrement, but like the rude bits just a little too much?
Fwoah!...er, I mean, an interesting choice
Betty Blue is one of the few soundtrack albums I regularly play. It's all desperately Eighties, yes, but it stands up somehow, especially the merry-go-roundy business.
Diva is still a lot of fun, too, and a much more accurate portrayal of the genuine permadrizzle-bound Paris than the colour-saturated sopfest that was Amelie.
Art/Entertainment - do they mix?
Yes they do as Diva testifies. Joe Public (of which I count my self a member)like art but also want entertainment. I think the dvd has boosted the pleasure of art or difficult film content. You can watch the fim several times and get more pleasure out of bits you missed. Pulp Fiction I did not tune to at the cinema or tv. Watched a dvd copy with better sound with crystal clear dialogue (as much as it ever is with Tarantino), my son and I loved it. Funny thing pleasure and art.
Solaris - the original 4 hour version
I still don't know if this is the most boringly pretentious film ever made or a brilliant insight into the human condition. Maybe both....but is certainly leads to a numb bum. Don't think I could watch all the way through again.