I'm out of movies

Cafe Society
41

[QUOTE=randwill]
How about Cowboy Bebop? Even if you don’t think you have an interest in anime, CB may appeal to you. It’s got good stories, interesting characters, action, pathos, humor and some of the best music in or out of film. You need to watch a few episodes (in order, of course) to get to know the characters and the amazing world(s). I’m re-watching it again after several years and I am blown away all over again.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, what I’ve seen I’ve liked. Reminds me: I still need to see Ghost in the Shell II.

42

[QUOTE=Hodge]
Keeping with the foreign language theme and the recent thread about Canadian epics, how about trying some French-Canadian cinema:[ul][li]Un Zoo la Nuit, Leolo - dir. Jean-Claude Lauzon[/li][li]Jesus of Montreal, Decline of the American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions - dir. Denys Arcand[/li][li]Le Confessionnal, Le Polygraphe, No - dir. Robert LePage[/li][li]Les Boys (and sequels) - dir. Louis Saia[/li][li]Mon Oncle Antoine - dir. Claude Jutra[/ul]All of these are good to excellent, particularly Leolo, Jesus and Le Confessionnal which are outright masterpieces.[/li][/QUOTE]

I’ve only seen a couple of these. Thanks!

43

[QUOTE=Shayna]
Italian for Beginners. Wonderful film.
[/QUOTE]

Yes. I try to see all the Dogme 95 films I can.

44

Haven’t read all the other posts but I was fascinated by The Bridge. It’s a documentary about suicides off the Golden Gate Bridge, the “most popular place” * for same in the world, 24 in one year.

*(Before Iraq, that is.)

45

[QUOTE=Zoggie]
I’m taking a different tack. lissener, you’re everything I want to one day be. Since you’ve seen more movies than most people, you can help me decide what to watch next in my Netflix queue. I’m going to be getting a new movie shipped tomorrow–what should I choose? L.I.E.? My Boyfriend’s Back? The Ice Storm? Fallen? Halloween? or From Hell? (Sorry to hijack your thread, but I figure if by some chance you haven’t seen any of these already mentioned movies, I’m helping you out…and if not, you can give me some help!)
[/QUOTE]
[ul][li]L.I.E. is a great movie, but disturbing; it portrays a man who seduces underage teenage boys without outright condemning him.[/li][li]My Boyfriend’s Back is interesting. It’s not that great, but it’s quirky fun, and it’s directed by one of the most underrated and underutilized directors I can think of, Bob Balaban. Almost every other movie he’s done is a masterpiece, but this was obviously a work for hire, with a pretty peurile script. Still, worth seeing I’d say.[/li][li]The Ice Storm is good, but heavy. Watch a comedy after.[/li][li]Fallen is moderately entertaining, but ultimately not that good.[/li][li]Halloween is a masterpiece of suspense horror; one of the most influential movies of the era. A canon film.[/li][li]From Hell is a fascinating failure. A huge mess, but a lot of talent tangled up in the mess. Worth seeing, and then forgetting about.[/li][/ul]

46

[QUOTE=Plynck]
Holy crap. There are movies that lissener hasn’t seen? That’s it - I’m asking to be buried with my ice skates.

Not much chance that you haven’t seen these, but here goes:

Map of the Human Heart

I’m a big fan of Carroll Ballard. Some of his movies get a bit sentimental, but Never Cry Wolf avoids that, and is terrific.

Let it Ride is agreeable quirky movie, although somewhat well known.

Silents? I’ve always loved Harold Lloyd, more than Keaton and as much as Chaplin. There’s a great collection of his work out now.

I know you like Sergio Leone. Along those lines, how about My Name is Nobody? Or any of the Terence Hill westerns?

And I have to believe that you’ve seen The Decalogue.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, seen pretty much all Ballard and Leone, and the Decalogue. Seen some Harold Lloyd; I find him annoying. I like Keaton and Chaplin better. Haven’t seen Map of the Human Heart, but I’ve always heard squicky things about it. Will add it to the list.

47

Lissener you probably have seen all these films but on the off chance I thought I’d suggest them, they’re ones I’ve enjoyed->

The Butcher Boy
Breakfast On Pluto
American Splendor
Jump Tomorrow
Backroads (Australian '70s)

48

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]
In addition to Wajda, I’d add the works of the following directors*:

Frank Borzage (Man’s Castle, Little Man What Now?, History is Made at Night)
[/quote]
Seen all that’s available; even bought a couple bootlegs in my quest. Would pay way more than I should for a copy of Man’s Castle.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

Emir Kusturica (Underground, Black Cat White Cat, Time of the Gypsies)
[/quote]
Should see more Kusturica. Thanks.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

Eric Rohmer (Chloe in the Afternoon, The Marquise of O…, A Summer’s Tale)
[/quote]
Big Rohmer fan.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

Theo Angelopoulos (The Travelling Players, Eternity and a Day, Landscape in the Mist)
[/quote]
Haven’t seen much. Noted.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

Budd Boetticher (Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Comanche Station)
[/quote]
HUGE Boetticher fan; seen all that I can, including bootlegs, the search continues.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

R.W. Fassbinder (The Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant, In a Year of 13 Moons, Beware of a Holy Whore)
[/quote]
Seen all I can. (Criterion is packaging Berlin Alexanderplatz for later this year!!!)

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

Luchino Visconti (The Leopard, Senso, La Terra Trema)
[/quote]
Seen all I can. I love The Leopard especially.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

Julio Medem (Vacas, Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Sex and Lucia)
[/quote]
Only the last one; noted.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

Guy Maddin (The Heart of the World, Brand Upon the Brain!, Cowards Bend the Knee)
[/quote]
Seen all I can. Huge fan.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]
Have you had a chance to explore African or Iranian cinema? Plenty of great directors to pursue there (Sembene, Kiarostami, Cisse, Makhmalbaf).
[/quote]
I am a Kiarastomi, Panahi, and Majidi completist. If it’s available, I’ve seen it. At least twice. Will note the other names.

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

I’d add Mikio Naruse, but am not sure how you’d find any of his films (almost unilaterally unavailable for home viewing). You didn’t mention Ozu in the OP, but he’s a pretty obvious choice, too (especially his less familiar work from the 30s).
[/quote]
Yes, seen all the Ozu I can, including a lot of, um, unavailable stuff. Only a couple of his silents though. Will investigate Naruse. (Seen Teshigahara’s stuff? Wow.)

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]

And as for animation and short material, you can’t go wrong with Norman McLaren, Bruce Conner, Wladyslaw Starewicz, Len Lye, or Karel Zeman.
[/quote]
Noted, will seek out.

49

To the rest of you I haven’t responded to individually, thanks very much for your input. I’ll add the ones I haven’t seen to my list.

Now, on to last night’s experiment. Gigli.

Not as bad as its rep, although not good: it’s the same as the tonnage of dreck that Hollywood spews by the airsick-bag-full every day. About on a par with Rain Man or The Other Sister. Terrible first draft of a script; more people should have said no to this. Now I’m going to try to forget it.

50

Have you done any Czech new wave? It’s been my obsession for the last year or so. It watches like French New Wave on freaking PCP. Start with Daisies and Closely Watched Trains, then move on to Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Pearls of the deep (compilation featuring shorts by the directors of the other ones listed here), Late August at the Hotel Ozone, and more. GREAT stuff.

TWo random completely obscure movies that I love: Celine and Julie Go Boating (watches like a french Jodorosky movie) and What happened was, Tom Noonan’s one feature film (it’s totally awesome).

Have you seen the If…, Oh Lucky Man!, Britannia Hospital trilogy starring Malcolm Mcdowell? They’re incredible, very overlooked, and “If…” was just released by Criterion and Lucky is FINALLY getting a DVD release in about a month.

51

How can one possibly appreciate films if one consumes them at that rate? I find that with any film that I actually like, I watch it, ruminate on it for a day or two, and then maybe watch it again. To see another, what, six films in the meantime would interfere with the ruminatory process.

Racing through the works of, say, Kurosawa in a few days seems to me like those tourists who bus round the world crossing off sights that they’ve “done”.

52

[QUOTE=lissener]

Only the last one; noted.
[/QUOTE]
My copy, too, idn’t it? :wink:

Re Theo Angelopoulos, avoid Ulysses’ Gaze. Three or four absolutely stunning images embedded like raisins in what feels like ten hours of unapologetically indulgent “look at me I’m a genius” nonsense.

53

[QUOTE=VCO3]
Have you done any Czech new wave? It’s been my obsession for the last year or so. It watches like French New Wave on freaking PCP. Start with Daisies and Closely Watched Trains, then move on to Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Pearls of the deep (compilation featuring shorts by the directors of the other ones listed here), Late August at the Hotel Ozone, and more. GREAT stuff.
[/QUOTE]
Noted, thanks.

[QUOTE=VCO3]

TWo random completely obscure movies that I love: Celine and Julie Go Boating (watches like a french Jodorosky movie) and What happened was, Tom Noonan’s one feature film (it’s totally awesome).
[/QUOTE]
C&JGB is a masterpiece. WHW was better than I expected.

[QUOTE=VCO3]

Have you seen the If…, Oh Lucky Man!, Britannia Hospital trilogy starring Malcolm Mcdowell? They’re incredible, very overlooked, and “If…” was just released by Criterion and Lucky is FINALLY getting a DVD release in about a month.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, way fun.

54

[QUOTE=Cervaise]
My copy, too, idn’t it? :wink:

[/QUOTE]
THAT’S where that came from! I still have your Lost I too, btw. Will trade both for my Singing Detective . . .

[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Re Theo Angelopoulos, avoid Ulysses’ Gaze. Three or four absolutely stunning images embedded like raisins in what feels like ten hours of unapologetically indulgent “look at me I’m a genius” nonsense.
[/QUOTE]
See, that’s the thing; that’s the only Angelopoulos I’ve seen, which is why that’s the only Angelopoulos I’ve seen. Will try to remedy that.

55

[QUOTE=Usram]
How can one possibly appreciate films if one consumes them at that rate? I find that with any film that I actually like, I watch it, ruminate on it for a day or two, and then maybe watch it again. To see another, what, six films in the meantime would interfere with the ruminatory process.

[/QUOTE]
It depends on the movie. Some stick with you, and you ruminate. Some slide right off the neurons like an over-easy egg. I watch many, many movies twice in a row. And some people ruminate faster than others. :cool:

[QUOTE=Usram]
Racing through the works of, say, Kurosawa in a few days seems to me like those tourists who bus round the world crossing off sights that they’ve “done”.
[/QUOTE]

Well, to be fair, Kurosawa mostly made westerns; genre adventure films. *Ikiru *and Dersu Uzula are masterpieces for the ages (and the last time I watched them I watched them twice), but most of his other stuff was just brilliant entertainment. (With some gap bridgers, like Throne of Blood and Rashoman.) I think of him as kind of the John Ford of Japan (he was a huge fan of Ford, by the way, and acknowledged his influence.) You want to put Kurosawa in perspective, watch you some Mizoguchi. He was more, say, the Bergman of Japan. Not really; he was unique and one of the true great masters of world cinema, on a par with Ozu and Dreyer and Tarkovsky. I have a great love for Kurosawa, but it’s not the same kind of reverence I have for the others I just named.

56

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989, U.K./West Germany, dir. Terry Gilliam)
After Hours (1985, U.S., dir. Martin Scorsese)
Before Sunrise (1995, U.S./Austria/Switzerland, dir. Richard Linklater
Before Sunset (2004, U.S., dir. Richard Linklater)
Blood Simple (1985, U.S., dir. Joel Coen)
Chungking Express (1994, Hong Kong, dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
Excalibur (1981, U.K., dir. John Boorman)
The Fantastic Planet (1973, France, dir. Rene Laloux)
House of Games (1987, U.S., dir. David Mamet)
La Jetée (1962, France, dir. Chris Marker)
Macbeth (1971, U.K./U.S., dir. Roman Polanski)
Menace II Society (1993, U.S., dir. Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes)
Play Misty for Me (1971, U.S., dir. Clint Eastwood)
Ride the High Country (1962, U.S., dir. Sam Peckinpah)
Salvador (1986, U.S., dir. Oliver Stone)
Seven Beauties (1976, Italy, dir. Lina Wertmuller)
Slacker (1991, U.S., dir. Richard Linklater)
They Live (1988, U.S., dir. John Carpenter)
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978, Italy, dir. Ermanno Olmi)
The Year of Living Dangerously (1983, Australia, dir. Peter Weir)

You’ve probably seen most of these.

57

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]
House of Games (1987, U.S., dir. David Mamet)
[/QUOTE]
Just released in a pristine Criterion edition a couple-few weeks ago, incidentally.

58

Have you seen all the Edward Yang you could get your hands on? Yi-Yi is the easy one, of course, but Confucian Confusion, Mahjong, Brighter Summer Day…

What about Edgar Reitz’s Heimat?

And you’ve probably seen it, but The Wire is America’s TV masterpiece, so if you haven’t seen it, do so.

59

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989, U.K./West Germany, dir. Terry Gilliam)
[/QUOTE]
One of my least unfavorite of Gilliams. A failure, but a fascinating one, and well worth seeing.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

After Hours (1985, U.S., dir. Martin Scorsese)
[/QUOTE]
I love this movie.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Before Sunrise (1995, U.S./Austria/Switzerland, dir. Richard Linklater
Before Sunset (2004, U.S., dir. Richard Linklater)
[/QUOTE]
These have been on my list for a long time, they’ve just never bubbled up to the top. I’ll keep them in mind.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Blood Simple (1985, U.S., dir. Joel Coen)
[/QUOTE]
A favorite.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Chungking Express (1994, Hong Kong, dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
[/QUOTE]
A REAL favorite.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Excalibur (1981, U.K., dir. John Boorman)
[/QUOTE]
Not Boorman’s best, but one of the better Arthurs.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

The Fantastic Planet (1973, France, dir. Rene Laloux)
[/QUOTE]
A unique experience. Playing as a midnight show in town this week.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

House of Games (1987, U.S., dir. David Mamet)
[/QUOTE]
A favorite.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

La Jetée (1962, France, dir. Chris Marker)
[/QUOTE]
A REAL favorite; 9,000 times better than 12 Monkeys.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Macbeth (1971, U.K./U.S., dir. Roman Polanski)
[/QUOTE]
One of the better Macbeths.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Menace II Society (1993, U.S., dir. Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes)
[/QUOTE]
A really great movie; seen several times.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Play Misty for Me (1971, U.S., dir. Clint Eastwood)
[/QUOTE]
Pretty entertaining, but haven’t seen for a while.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Ride the High Country (1962, U.S., dir. Sam Peckinpah)
[/QUOTE]
One of my favorite westerns.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Salvador (1986, U.S., dir. Oliver Stone)
[/QUOTE]
Hmm. Haven’t seen since 1986. Don’t remember it being that distinguished. Maybe I’ll try again.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Seven Beauties (1976, Italy, dir. Lina Wertmuller)
[/QUOTE]
Not a Wertmuller fan, but maybe I’ll check it out.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

Slacker (1991, U.S., dir. Richard Linklater)
[/QUOTE]
A good one.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

They Live (1988, U.S., dir. John Carpenter)
[/QUOTE]
Classic cheesy SF allegory/satire, with one of the best fight scenes ever.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978, Italy, dir. Ermanno Olmi)
[/QUOTE]
Wow. What a great movie. Maybe it’s time to see that again.

[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]

The Year of Living Dangerously (1983, Australia, dir. Peter Weir)
[/QUOTE]
One of Weir’s least annoying films. Linda Hunt is still a favorite actress, dating back to this movie.
[/QUOTE]

60

[QUOTE=lissener]
…Linda Hunt is still a favorite actress, dating back to this movie.
[/QUOTE]

Won an Oscar for playing a dude, IIRC.