Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

Have you seen Parasite (2019)? That one has received high accolades, including the Palme d'Or.

A sure indication I will hate it.

[stanton]

Korean films ... the revenge trilogy from Park Chan-wook is excellent. OldBoy and Sympathy for Mrs Vengeance are masterpieces, and belong easily to the best films of the new millennium. Kim Jee-woon is another quite interesting director with films like Bittersweet Life and I saw the Devil.
Not to forget the long established Kim Ki-duk, his films are sometimes difficult but always challenging, and Bin Jip (Empty Houses) is real pleasure.

I think there is a lot to discover in Korean movies, and I enjoyed these new films Burning and Parasite,

[T.H.]

The Brinks Job (1978) - A tonal mess that doesn't know if it wants to be a comedy or crime movie first. The plotting is messy and it's basically a pointless exercise. And what a waste of talent: Friedkin, Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Warren Oates, Paul Sorvino, et al. And what's worse is that this is loosely based on the Great Brinks Robbery. Why make a joke out of such rich subject matter? And why does 1940s Boston look more like 1920s NYC? D+

[titoli]

The Brinks Job (1978) - A tonal mess that doesn't know if it wants to be a comedy or crime movie first. The plotting is messy and it's basically a pointless exercise. And what a waste of talent: Friedkin, Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Warren Oates, Paul Sorvino, et al. And what's worse is that this is loosely based on the Great Brinks Robbery. Why make a joke out of such rich subject matter? And why does 1940s Boston look more like 1920s NYC? D+

Word.

[noodles_leone]

Mad Dog and Glory - 7/10
Terrible cinematography, editing and mise en scene that almost made me quit after 15min. The performances kept me watching, which is a good thing because there are terrific dialogues and scenes in it. The ending is a let down and they kind of missed the mark with that whole friendship thing but I'll watch it again several times.

[noodles_leone]

Les Misérables (2019) 7/10
Pretty good movie (actually very good for a first feature) about the French "ghetto" of Montfermeuil. It's of course the direct descent from La Haine (1995), although its visual style is way less radical (but more impressive). It's at its best when it's just trying to show you what living in this place is like, and at its worst when the characters themselves try to tell you their analysis. Most of the acting is top notch.
By the way it's more or less a social thriller whith an actual plot, not just a glorified documentary.

Also, for those who don't know, Montfermeuil is where Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables, and the film's numerous nodes to the book are very well done. Some are heavily highlighted (they talk about the book, and the film ends wih a direct quote), but they also use more subtle paraphrases.

[drinkanddestroy]

1. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) 8.5/10


2. Blue Jasmine (2013) 7/10

The story is highly similar to A Streetcar Named Desire.

[dave jenkins]

The UK blu of OUATITW is out with the German dub which allows me to finally see:
Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod (1968) – 10/10. Leone, but in the language of Heine and Rilke. “Wo ist Frank?”/ “Frank hatte keine Zeit.”/ “Habt ihr ein Pferd fur mich?”/ “Sieht aus, als ob wir ein Pferd zu wenig hatten.”/ “Ihr habt zwei zu viel.” Suddenly everything is elevated: it’s the Twilight of the Archetypes. Yes, there are intimations of Wagner. The arias may be stared, but Morricone’s leitmotifs get the full orchestral treatment. Not ponderous, the film nonetheless allows us time to ponder the eternal verities. What matters in the end: Das Land, das Geld, die Frau? No. Leone, the poet-philosopher of cinema, posits instead: Ewigkeit.

[noodles_leone]

The UK blu of OUATITW is out with the German dub which allows me to finally see:
Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod (1968) – 10/10. Leone, but in the language of Heine and Rilke. “Wo ist Frank?”/ “Frank hatte keine Zeit.”/ “Habt ihr ein Pferd fur mich?”/ “Sieht aus, als ob wir ein Pferd zu wenig hatten.”/ “Ihr habt zwei zu viel.” Suddenly everything is elevated: it’s the Twilight of the Archetypes. Yes, there are intimations of Wagner. The arias may be stared, but Morricone’s leitmotifs get the full orchestral treatment. Not ponderous, the film nonetheless allows us time to ponder the eternal verities. What matters in the end: Das Land, das Geld, die Frau? No. Leone, the poet-philosopher of cinema, posits instead: Ewigkeit.

Great review. You made me want to give it a shot.
How are the voices?

[stanton]

The voices are pretty good, I always watch the German version, even if they changed some of the lines, and even worse they added a few where nothing is spoken. But then, some of the changed dialogues beat the ones blessed by the Sergio, it is even hard to believe that they are not from Leone. I think he would have loved them.

That line from which the German title is taken, is incredible, and is much better than the comparatively lame "Make your loving brother happy".

[dave jenkins]

Il était une fois dans l'Ouest (1968) The temptation to see the film as political allegory--Morton is de Gaulle; Frank, Malraux; Harmonica, Yves Montand--must be resisted. Instead we’ll cast our net wider. When Frank speaks the immortal lines “Juste un homme” we draw a quick breath. Words of Rousseau! And yet, French is also the language of love. This fact underscores the central dynamic of the film, the ménage a trois of Jill, Harmonica, and Cheyenne. Such an alliance is fragile, it begins to dissolve even as it forms. But Jill emerges from her encounters serene and empowered, wearing her dress as Harmonica has taught her, the livery of sexual liberation. Then Cheyenne offers his benediction: “faites comme si de rien n’etait.” At last we see Jill carrying water to the men and understand that soon she’ll be (as we Americans say) “pulling a train.” C’est magnifique!

Now that I've given up on contemporary cinema, I will finally have a chance to complete Leone's entire oeuvre. Still yet to view: Имало едно време на запад, Hasta que llegó su hora, Bilo jednom na Divljem zapadu, Tenkrát na Západě, Vtedy na Západe, Vestens hårde halse, Ükskord Metsikus Läänes, Harmonika - en hämnare, Huuliharppukostaja, Kapote sti Dysi, Κάποτε στη Δύση,Volt egyszer egy vadnyugat, Dastan-e bozorg-e gharb, Ruzi ruzegary gharb, and one of Leone's few Japanese-language films, Uesutan.

[noodles_leone]

That line from which the German title is taken, is incredible, and is much better than the comparatively lame "Make your loving brother happy".

It is, but I suspect it wouldn't work in most other languages. I cannot figure out a way to phrase it in French or English.

I always watch the French version, which sounds much, much better than the English one (except for Fonda, who kills it).

[noodles_leone]

A Hidden Life 8/10
Powerful stuff.

[dave jenkins]

A Hidden Life 8/10
Powerful stuff.

I saw this today and I agree. What a difference having a story makes. The mix of English and German was strange at first but I got used to it. Something I never could quite handle, though, were all the many shots with optical distortions. Was Malick using some weird lenses or something? The whole thing is a little long, but on the whole I found this his best film since The Thin Red Line. The score by James Newton Somebody was also good.

[noodles_leone]

I saw this today and I agree. What a difference having a story makes. The mix of English and German was strange at first but I got used to it. Something I never could quite handle, though, were all the many shots with optical distortions. Was Malick using some weird lenses or something? The whole thing is a little long, but on the whole I found this his best film since The Thin Red Line. The score by James Newton Somebody was also good.

Having a story definitely helps. What also helps is the setting: the film is about farmers who live in the mountain. Suddenly, all the wide angle tricks Malick has been used to death for a decade make total sense: these people's lives are heavily interlinked with their environment. So it makes total sense to have in the same shot the close up, the field, the mountain and the church. Also, the fact that they actually HAVE stuff to do when they are outside helps the scenes. You can now put metaphysical narration on shots of the characters WORKING in the fields, while it was often ridiculous seeing the characters pointlessly wander in fields and forests in... other films (I won't give a specific title because we how know how much Roy loves Song to Song).

About the optical distortion: Malick didn't use weird lenses, he used regular ones. Optical distortion is what you get when you go that wide. There are very expensive lenses that kind of reduce the effect (you will never spot lens distortion in a David Fincher movie) but some cinematographers just don't care (check out Lincoln: they don't go as wide as they go here but lens distortion is very noticeable in interior steadycam shots). It was a bit too much for me too, I was never a fan of the fisheye effect. But the film looks mostly gorgeous so it's all right.

The English/German thing was really annoying at first, it felt like Malick couldn't chose between arthouse and mainstream (for a film that was OBVIOUSLY arthouse, so just go all the way, Terry) but like you said, you get used to it.

It is definitely long (and repetitive), which lead me to be quite bored several times. But thinking about it, it's for the better. It isn't about a guy who says "no" once and then has to suffer the consequences. It's about a guy who keeps saying "no" over the years. You have to experience how hard it is on him and his family on the long term.

Quick note: the Nazis are pretty nice people in this film. They keep giving the guy the chance to be 100% forgiven.
Last note: Hitler himself looks pretty nice too. There is a whole montage with stockshots of him having fun and all in the mountains. The way it's edited make it looks like 1940's Terrence Malick did a short with Hitler.