Non-BW, Non-HW, Non-Asian Films

[Anna]

Well the way I see it is Abhi is in 'Marcos' for the older more calm conman.. and Ritiesh would be 'Juan' the more disorganized  childish conman.

Bollyvista also reports a 3rd conman
http://www.bollyvista.com/article/a/32/5678

In which in the 9 queens, Valeria *Marco's sister* proved to be the 3rd conman. 


Of course in Bluffmaster, Abhi and Priyanka are not going to be brother sister but... I can't help but name the similarities between the two.

[gabahd]

Should we discuss Iranian movies here, or the Asian Cinema thread? I think here because the style is closer to Europe than Hong Kong movies...

[Anna]

I'm interested to know which iranian movies you have seen.

[gabahd]

I've been having an Iranian movie marathon for the past month. I borrowed 10 DVDs from my brother, and am trying to give them back as soon as possible! So far I have seen 4.

1. Rang-e khoda (The Color of Paradise) - 1999 - Majid Majidi
The story of a blind boy, and his 'relationship' with his stoic dad.

2. Davandeh (The Runner) - 1985 - Amir Naderi
A story about a young orphan, his various 'jobs', his friends and how they organize different competitions for themselves. Reminded me of Salaam Bombay!

3. Safar e Ghandehar (Kandhahar) - 2001 - Mohsen Makhmalbaf
An Afghan-born woman attempts to reach Kandahar to find her suicidal sister, and give her reasons to live. She meets several characters on the way there, who help her reach the unlikely reachable destination.

4. Khomreh (The Jar) - 1992 - Ebrahim Forouzesh
In the rural Iranian 60es, the sole teacher of a remote school deals with gossip from the villager while he tries desperately to fix/replace the water cask that they found out was broken.

I liked all 4 movies, but I have a sweet spot for The Runner and The Jar!
Iranian movies are really good!

There are 6 more movies for me to see...

[debur]

Two films come to mind..

1. The White Balloon(Badkonake sefid) by Jafar Panahi, written by Abbas Kiarostami..is about a delightful pair of kids who drop some money down a drain on a city street and find a way to get it back..

2. The Keeper: Which I saw in a sneak, currently in limited release (www.greatomar.com ) is a period piece about the 13th century Mathematician poet. (wish it had more poetry , though..)

[Sunny]

I saw Europa Europa, and it's become my next favourite film from the European films I've seen alongside Das Experiment, incidentally this is also a German film. It really is a very powerful film, about a young boy hiding the fact that he is jew and living amongst Germans and Nazis and joins the Hitler Youth, telling lie after lie, devising cunning ways to avoid being found out. I vaguely remember seeing some of it many years ago when it came on television,  I remembered the scene where he tries to pull over his skin to cover his sexual organ, because it was so striking. I am glad I saw it again, because this film really is extraordinary and at the same time horrifying in how it exposes the indoctrination of children by the Nazi's to hate Jews. It can be nailbiting in just how many close calls the boy has. It completely keeps you gripped from start to finish, thanks to it's; brilliant screenplay, which I've just now learned won the best adapted screenplay Golden Globe and was nominated by the Oscars for the same; and the truly outstanding performance by Marco Hofschneider as the young boy.

This is a highly professionally made film, very well told and a wholesome entertainer. Watch it. Simply terrific.

Btw, the scene when Marco makes love to the woman on the train will make you laugh 

[alexaha]

Anybody seen "dear Wendy" by Thomas Vinterberg ? Just came back from the movie theater and I'm too tired to write much. I had no idea what it was about when I went to see it. Actually thought it would be some sort of love story´. I was in for a surprise there...Obviously it wasn't a dogma film, but Vinterberg's second post-dogma movie. To me it felt like a very plain reckoning (Abrechnung, don't know if reckoning is the right word here) with the U.S. and its passion for firearms. Combined with a coming-of-age story. Maybe some of you have different theories...for now it's GOOD NIGHTfrom me.

..back after a couple of days. In retrospect it's not a movie I'd recommend at all. There are some interesting aspects in the way Vinterberg approached the topic of violence/youth but it didn't work in the end. Too artificial to make me care for any of the characters.

[Nafeesa]

I just watched Japanese Story again - an Australian Film starring Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, About a Boy, Connie and Carla, In Her Shoes).

That movie just completely blew my mind away, and I had forgotten how powerful the movie is. Without spoiling it, it is a love story, however an EXTREMELY realistic love story, which passes all your typical cliche's while still retaining that powerful love element to it. And the dramatic twist three quarters of the way through the movie will leave you absolutely speechless.

I was watching it, and the tears were streaming down my face hard and fast - its probably the best Australian film I have ever seen, and everything about it is perfect - cast, setting and soundtrack. The key song throughout the movie is hauntingly beautiful.

[chandranc]

Talk to her is an extremely seductive Pedro Almodovar film about an impossible relationship between a woman in a coma and a retarded male nurse that-talks to her. It's a very PG film and has beautifully used primary colors in it's compositions.

[Dil Bert]

Just watched Forgotten Silver, a 1995 film Peter Jackson worked on.  It's a mocumentary about an undiscovered pioneer of film.  It's amusing and quite well done.

[veracious]

Peter Jackson has done some awesome stuff. Check out Braindead if you wish to be grossed out in the funniest way.

[gabahd]

I love Heavenly Creatures a lot! Maybe I should check out more of PJ's pre-Hobbit stuff...

[Dil Bert]

Peter Jackson has done some awesome stuff. Check out Braindead if you wish to be grossed out in the funniest way.

Yeah, I saw the cut version of that (Dead Again) as well as The Frighteners, Heavenly Creatures, Meet the Feebles and two of the LOTR films.  I definitely prefer his pre-LOTR stuff.

[Sunny]

A Sons room(Italian)

This was Italy's official Oscar entry for 2002, the year Lagaan was nominated and it also won the top prize at the Cannes film festival. The film is nothing special though, a very basically made ordinary no-budget film with almost no story, little use of background music, basic television camera compositions  a dull slice of day-to-day life of a family headed by a father who works as psychotherapist for a living.

The plot is simply about a family and how the death of their son affects them, though it takes about an hour before that happens and after that  the rest is them mourning about it. A lot of what happens in this film really doesn't have any deeper meaning or significance. It's just a very ordinary film, though it does have some moments, such as the psychotherapy sessions can be amusing, although the film just seems to be interested in the father and sidelines the rest. There is hardly anything to maintain interest, it is executed in a very bland manner and even at 90 min it still tests your paitence to sit through it.

[Sunny]

Talk to her(Spanish)

I cannot say I really liked this film. It didn't have much of a plot, for a didn't seem to go anywhere until the last 15 min, didn't even know who the protagonist was for a long time. I was dropping of to sleep somewhere in this film. I cannot really say much about the film, as there's so little story; a lot of seductive classical/opera music though. Not quite what I expected after reading the rave reviews. Another aimless film trying to get away as art.

[chandranc]

Talk to her is a great film about loss and pain and second chances. But you're right. you don't know for sure who the protagonist of the film is until the last ten  minutes. It can get to be disturbing (or boring) experience for people if they have to know these things(who the hero is, who the villain is...etc) when they watch a film.

It's anything BUT aimless IMO. It's slow...and seductive. It's great art masquerading as an art film.

[Sunny]

The film's storyline that was most developed was the relationship between Alicia and Berengo(?), if it had concentrated on this relationship, it would have been better. However, it starts of with Lydia(bull fighter) and Marco and that leads nowhere in the film. Why introduce characters, if you are going to make them dissappear later? These kind of art films use provocative visuals and seductive music to substitute for story. There wasn't much that happened in the film. It was just too slow. I don't mind slow films, if it covers substance, but there is so little substance here. I mean what is the point showing Marco and Lydia meeting and then putting a caption "3 months later" and start on a different storyline all together. It would save a lot of time of Marco and Lydia are introduced as a couple at the start. And, considering most of the film is about Marco, Alicia and Berengo, the whole Marco, Lydia and El nino angle should not even be in the film. I think a lot could have been done with the relationship of the threesome, but unfortunately it just brushes over. There a lot of jumping around time in this film. It just struck me all as aimless; just not going anywhere, until the very end.

An aside, my DVD was certified 15, but there is an extremely explicit depiction of a womans vagina in the film in full frontal and close view, with a 3 inch man entering inside it(LOL) which is used a kind of dream sequence to suggest the act of rape taking place. Hardly 15 material 

[chandranc]

I thnik you were looking for a story. the film gave you a meditation on these feelings(pain, loss)...etc. It wasn't a leniar narrative. That let you down.
(I'm speculating here) plus all the R rated stuff bothered you.

I own the Talk to her DVD.

everytime I see the bullfight sequences-ending with lydia's injury I think it's high art in the tradition of Luis Bunuel's Andalusian dog. (same for the black and white vagina sequences.)

Many people don't consider abstract painting art (because they can't see any recognizable shapes in the paintings). But abstract painting is neither aimless nor meaningless.

[Sunny]

I think art is meaningless if it does not have a context. In cinema, the story is the context. You mentioned the bullfighting sequence, although I did not mentiion before, that struck me as a weakness. We suddenly have this very intense scene, a huge event, and all that hapens is a bull comes charging at her, hits her and that's it. I don't see the high art there, I see a scene done in slow motion.

Abstract art, is exactly that abstract. Everybody has a subjective interpretation of what it means, guessing at what the maker intended, trying to go into his mind. Art films do that, they leave everything open-ended, they use provocative visuals, such as a glass of red wine falling in a stylized slow motion. This creates several interpretations, but sometimes, the director just do it "because it looks good/interesting"  Likewise, in Talk to her, using the slow motion in the bull fight and silent movie to depict the rape, is only done because it looks good/abstract, but IMO it lessens the impact of those scenes.

[Prem Rogue]

Peter Jackson has done some awesome stuff. Check out Braindead if you wish to be grossed out in the funniest way.

Yeah, I saw the cut version of that (Dead Again) as well as The Frighteners, Heavenly Creatures, Meet the Feebles and two of the LOTR films.  I definitely prefer his pre-LOTR stuff.

The only PJ films I've seen are the LOTR films, which I found to be just okay.  "Standard epic filmmaking," lots of CGI, but not much visual creativity that I can recall.  I'm not particularly looking forward to a 3-hour King Kong.

[Sunny]

The only PJ films I've seen are the LOTR films, which I found to be just okay.  "Standard epic filmmaking," lots of CGI, but not much visual creativity that I can recall.  I'm not particularly looking forward to a 3-hour King Kong.

I did not like the LOTR films at all, I may sometimes give the impression that I am biased to good CGI in films, but despite thinking LOTR had absolutely amazing CGI, I still did not like the film and again because of story, plus it was so cheesy. I thought the first one was ok, the second was bad and I never brought myself to watch the third. I saw the second one with a huge group of friends in India and we all disliked it.

[chandranc]

I think art is meaningless if it does not have a context. In cinema, the story is the context.

and that opinion is probably why you didn't like Talk to her.

Likewise, in Talk to her, using the slow motion in the bull fight and silent movie to depict the rape, is only done because it looks good/abstract, but IMO it lessens the impact of those scenes.

Hold your horses..er.. bulls, The bull fight scene in talk to her was not specific to rape . It was somewhat more general to all kinds of abuse/experience a woman has to undergo just because she wants to enter the very male world(I thought the whole bull fighting sequence referred to this. When the bull finally gores her, if you look closely, she's not even trying to get away. she looks exhausted). There was never any direct mention of an incident of  rape of lydia in the film. Maybe you were reading too narrowly here.

We suddenly have this very intense scene, a huge event, and all that hapens is a bull comes charging at her, hits her and that's it. I don't see the high art there, I see a scene done in slow motion.

Maybe that's because ,absent a strong narrative story , scenes appear to fall away into meaningless abstraction to you. I guess there's nothing wrong with that. we each watch the kind of films that inspire us.

[Sunny]

Hold your horses..er.. bulls, The bull fight scene in talk to her was not specific to rape

No, I said the silent movie. It was Alicia who got raped.

[Dil Bert]

The only PJ films I've seen are the LOTR films, which I found to be just okay.  "Standard epic filmmaking," lots of CGI, but not much visual creativity that I can recall.  I'm not particularly looking forward to a 3-hour King Kong.

Having seen the trailer, I have no interest in seeing the new King Kong.  Our tastes differ markedly, but I think I'm safe recommending Forgotten Silver.  You might like Heavenly Creatures as well.  All of the other ones I mentioned have a pretty strong gonzo sense of humor and/or lots of violence.

[Prem Rogue]

The only PJ films I've seen are the LOTR films, which I found to be just okay.  "Standard epic filmmaking," lots of CGI, but not much visual creativity that I can recall.  I'm not particularly looking forward to a 3-hour King Kong.

Having seen the trailer, I have no interest in seeing the new King Kong.  Our tastes differ markedly, but I think I'm safe recommending Forgotten Silver.  You might like Heavenly Creatures as well.  All of the other ones I mentioned have a pretty strong gonzo sense of humor and/or lots of violence.

As someone who owns a copy of Freddy Got Fingered, I'm not afraid of weird humor or violence 

I think I'm one of two people who actually likes that movie...