Saturday, September 16, 2017

Weekend Open Thread

RIP HDS.

Happy weekend, everyone. As of today we're just two weeks away from #ScaryMovieMonth. Hope everyone's getting excited. Staying hydrated. In the meantime, the floor is all yours.

31 comments:

  1. Good weekend to all of you. Bon week-end à tous.

    Scary Movie Month is not far away now. I can feel the excitement building here.

    It was a really active movie week, to the detriment of certain tasks I really need to get to. Oh well, there is always next week.

    DEATH BY INVITATION (1971) – A promising opening had me hoping I had found a low-budget gem, like LEMORA, but the film quickly becomes boring. The leading actress, Shelby Leverington, is the only bright spot.

    I CALLED HIM MORGAN (2016) – On the snowy night of February 18, 1972, jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan played his last gig. By the early morning hours, he was dead at 33 from a bullet fired by his wife, Helen. This documentary delves into the events that led up to that terrible night. The core of it is the interview Helen Morgan gave in the last months of her life.

    There was an evening devoted to the films of Walerian Borowczyk. GOTO, ISLAND OF LOVE (1968), his debut feature, is an ironically titled black-and-white film about a decaying society. Under the leadership of elected dictators, Goto lives in the past, with the population educated to serve the elite. The austere visuals enhance the grim atmosphere of the film. Afterwards, I finished watching IMMORAL TALES (1973), about as stylistically different from the first film as possible. It is colorful, light in tone, and extremely sensual, sometimes in transgressive ways. Borowczyk especially liked to mix religion with sex. The third segment, about the notorious Countess Barthory, is the highlight of the film, both beautiful and horrific.

    LES ASTRONAUTES (1960) – Borowczyk started out as an animator. This fascinating early short film prefigures Terry Gilliam’s work on Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

    THE FOUNDER (2016) – I will echo prior comments by stating this is a solid film. While Ray Kroc undoubtedly comes off as a villain, there was at least some effort to humanize him. Regarding the rearranging of the facts of the story, the changes put Kroc in a worse light. A little research revealed that the brothers received a one-time payment to get out of the business.

    ROCCO (2016) – Could not take this documentary at face value. I had the sense that much of this film was people playing for the camera, especially Rocco playing the role of Rocco Siffredi. He is a man full of contradictions. Seeing him with his family was interesting, though. His wife is a former adult performer. Not especially pleasant to watch, particularly when he gets rough with the women during the movie shoots. I finished it because I prefer to finish what I begin watching.




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  2. RIP Harry Dean Stanton. He was really one of the greatest.

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    1. Seconded. He always added something special, even if it was a small role.

      (As security guard) "Are you an alien?"

      Bruce Banner - post Hulk-out: "No, no I'm not."

      Guard: "Then, son, you've got a condition."

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    2. That is a classic line about the Hulk. Perfect

      What a guy

      May he R.I.P

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    3. This post was set to run before the news broke yesterday. I've gone and changed the image at the top to honor HDS. He was one of a kind.

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    4. Most of what I know about HDS comes from the documentary PARTLY FICTION. He came across as a man who did not like to look back. That is probably why he worked until the very end. He also expressed himself sparingly, which seemed to carry over to his acting. I have not seen many of the films he was in.

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  3. I saw mother! and at first enjoyed it as a story about anxiety. Then I felt dumb for not picking up on some of the allegory until the last ten minutes.

    It is one of the craziest wide release films I've seen. I'm not surprised by the F Cinemascore. There were walkouts at my theater.

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    1. I liked it, but it's certainly one of the stranger wide releases ever. One old woman in my theater described it as "the worst movie she's ever seen." And she's old, so that's a lot of movies. Also, Rex Reed has already called it one of the worst movies of the century. Never change, Rex.

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    2. Haha, Fuck Rex Reed! Dude does reviews without even watching the entire film (VHS 2). I can't wait to see Mother!.

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    3. I really wasn't sure about it walking out of the theater but now that I've sat with it for a while, I can say I really liked it.

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    4. I think you'll appreciate the sound design, if nothing else, Chaybee!

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    5. Nice! The only vibe I got from the trailer was "Queen of Earth" which was my favorite film of 2015 and loved that score as well!

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    6. i was reading a bit about that cinemascore crap. man that's a bunch of bull****. Soderberg's Solaris got an F. what the hell.

      and that Rex Reed guy, i was not aware of the guy before, but he sound like an angel ;)

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    7. I've never read a Rex Reed review, but he is kind of infamous for insane hyperbole and throwing temper tantrums at screenings. At least his immaturity is consistent.

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    9. I literally just finished my RS with Adam on Mother! and I'm kicking myself for not mentioning the great sound design! Good catch, Luke.

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  4. I gotta say as a musician who works with samplers and sequencers I found Baby Driver to be masterfully crafted. The sequencing of everything being in rhythm, including footsteps, gunshots, car doors, even dialog pacing is meticulous and incredibly put together, not to mention doing this had to have been mind numbing. As a movie I thought it was pretty good but it's one of my favorites of the year based on the above.

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    1. i'm not a musician, but i enjoyed how Wright time everything with the music. the man is a master of editing and rhythm. the movie has its faults (what movie doesn't) but i'll take a Wright movie any day of the week over anything else

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    2. Right on! Yeah, just thought I'd give this perspective as I really was watching the film with the creative process of making music in my head the entire time. It made me wonder if Wright is a musician as well as being technically amazing at editing.

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    3. he must have some music in his bones. you can't make a movie like that without being some sort of musician... i think :)

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  5. The Uninvited (1944): that was an very good ghost story. the characters are not dumb, there's a lot of humor, it's shot very well and it's not too long. i like how the characters are not scared by the ghost, but try simply to understand what's going. there's some interesting twist. i highly recommend it.

    Suspiria: i can't wait for the new blu-ray. in the mean time i got the korean edition a few months ago and watched it twice already. to me it's the best italian horror movie. the use of color, the framing and the fantastic score are perfect.

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  6. I'm getting real excited for scary movie month. We've been slowly ramping up to it with some lighter horror and stuff we need to catch up on.

    Watched 47 Metres down. I enjoyed it, it felt like a mix between the Shallows and Frozen (both of which I probably enjoyed more.

    And of course I watched Escape From New York in honor of HDS. Long live the Brain.

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  7. Double bill of two recent indie's last night: "The House on Elm Lake" and "Pitchfork". The latter is a straight up slasher that has some decent kills. The weirdest part of it was how it was shot. It looks really vibrant, almost like a Hype Williams music video or something. It was bizarrely crafted at times with a weird, choreographed barn dance segment (much like a similar indie called "The Sleeper") but overall I thought it was decent. It's free on Amazon Prime if anyone wants to stash it for SMM.

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  8. Gonna watch Paris, Texas today for HDS. I saw it when I was a kid because family movie night was a kid's movie then whatever my Dad and Mom damn well wanted to see. Even young I remember watching the whole thing because Stanton was so unlike any aduly I knew. Looking forward to watching again for the first time since.

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    1. great movie. one of my favorite Wenders movie

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    2. My second favorite Wenders film, Wings of Desire #1. My second favorite HDS performance, Wild at Heart #1.

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    3. Yeah wild at heart is probably #1. Just his presence in Lynch movies brings a levity and humanity that can otherwise be elusive.

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  9. Stagecoach (1939): dubbed the first adult western and arguably one of the most important american western ever made. The racism and sexism is very much present, of course. the women are there to be saved. The ‘natives’ are merely faceless monsters, serving as an excuse for the big chase. It’s worth it if only for that great chase scene near the end featuring the greatest stunt of all time. The rest of the movie is great too, but when talking about this movie, people will remember the chase and the stunt first. And we must not forget this is the move that made John Wayne the star that we know. I laughed at one line one of the character said: what this country needs is a businessman for president

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    1. One of the films on my list of shame. Besides Peckinpah's films and the Italian westerns, the western genre is one that I have avoided for most of my film viewing life. Although I have watched more westerns over recent years, I still am not greatly drawn to the genre.

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  10. Hope you are having fun at the Helsinki Film Festival, Mikko.

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    1. Thanks so much! Only just arrived in Helsinki, the first movie starts in a few hours.

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