So much going on this weekend! In addition to three competing shows (the acoustic at 11th and U st., a show at Fools and a show in Davis and probably more), Strangers with Candy opens today at the Crest and so does the French Film Festival! I love the FFF, it's the fucking best! And I'm so excited because I just noticed that I can go see the Jacques Tati movie that I thought I was going to miss when it rescreens at 10:45 on sunday morning. Don't miss this opportunity to see a Tati movie on the big screen. I was blown away when I saw Playtime on DVD but there is so much going on in every frame that you need to see his movies on a big screen.
My only quibble with the FFF is that they are playing the horrifying movie Irreversible as a midnight movie. Pure exploitative schlock. It's one of those movies that plays out of sequence that if you think about later if it played in sequence there would be nothing to it. It contains the most brutal and prolonged rape I've ever seen on camera (actually I averted my eyes after a little bit so I didn't see most of it) as well as stomach-turning realistic head-smashing violence when you're not expecting it. It represents the zenith (or nadir depending on how you look at it) of that trend of crappy French movies that just float along for two hours with no plot and throw a rape in to make it seem like they're about something. Don't get me started!
Really? I found "Irreversible" interesting. I thought the twists and turns were great. My ideas of who was evil kept getting turned around as the movie unfolded (or reversed). The rape scene was incredibly difficult to watch, but at least they played it out in real time, rather than romanticize it.
ReplyDeleteI too really enjoyed that movie. No film ever made me feel so scared and gross. I love that just when you had enough, the movie ends with a ducking strobe light! Thomas Bangalter made a perfect sound for it too.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion (which many differ with) a movie that makes you "feel something" and that something is is sick or nauseous is easy enough to achieve and I think sometimes people think that makes it a movie that is meaningful in some way. I could make a boring movie in which a slovenly fat teen mopes around and does nothing until in the end and ax murderer kills her family and rapes her (sorry to spoil the French film Fat Girl for you) and yes, you will feel sick and stunned, possibly for days afterward, but for me that feeling is not to be confused with a film that is worth remembering. Call me old-fashioned.
ReplyDeletebecky,
ReplyDeletei've always wanted someone to take a good, slow, well-crafted, dramatic film (like 'the remains of the day') and tack on some bizarre ending--like space aliens coming in at the last minute and killing everyone for no reason. a total 'surprise ending' as it were. i don't know why i want to see a film like this. i just do. somehow i figured this post would make sense in the current thread.
For feelings of discomfort mixed with giddy chuckles "Visitor Q" as mentioned above is a good choice. Two thumbs up! Also, check out Pasolini's "Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom"
ReplyDelete--miike mouse
"salo is one of the great cinematic adventures of our time. their is a hidden love story that once found electrifys even the coldest of hearts"
ReplyDelete-roger ebert
i also think it's one of the greatest movies i've seen. irreversible is okay. i don't see what the big deal is. a story is a story. back to salo, it's really good.
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ReplyDeleteYeah, this one doesn't have Chevalier in it either. Not going.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete"A Scanner Darkly" opened at Tower today... Thats what I'm doing tonight.
ReplyDeleteChris L.
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ReplyDeletei saw fat girl and i also thought that was good. i don't know what could have been bad about that film...i mean it was a bit uncomfotable and gross, but those things should be valued in movies. salo irreversible and fat girl= good movies
ReplyDeleteWhat was "good" about fat girl? It made you feel uncomfortable? Does that make it good? Why is that to be valued? Lots of things make me uncomfortable, like tight pants for instance, but I don't think that's good.
ReplyDeletewhy do you keep mentioning salo? How can you compare them? I'm sure a Pasolini movie would be better than a movie directed by that hack Catherine Breillat. Did you like Romance, too? The movie where the big selling point was that there's a boner in it (always a good thing) and that contained, surprise!, another rape? Is that a spoiler? Sorry, you can probably just assume that any Breillat movie will have a rape.
I just noticed that the new Charlotte Rampling movie is playing on sunday, too. I want to see that. Too many movies.
ReplyDelete> why do you keep mentioning salo? How
ReplyDelete> can you compare them?
Just to make it clear, "Salo" was mentioned by more than one poster. That was someone else making a comparison.
--miike mouse
here's ebert's review of fat girl, if anyone's interesed. i'm not saying my opinion is the only valid one. he at least explained what he liked about it
ReplyDeletehttp://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011123/REVIEWS/111230301/1023
and I like his review of irreversible (glad he notes la belluci's "perfect breasts" but I don't agree with his conclusions at all
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030314/REVIEWS/303140303/1023
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ReplyDelete"Salo" is my "Irreversible". I spent a lot of time averting my gaze and probably only truly watched half of it. Long, long before I ever had children of my own, my brain always cried, "FOUL!" when I saw kids being hurt by adults. The gratuitous scenes of violence against young boys is just too much for me.
ReplyDelete"The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" is a fine film, but it will always be my least favorite Greenaway film for this reason.
"Salo" was part of a class I took in grad school and it was funny that the majority of us in the class agreed that it was a really disturbing with few redeeming qualities. Thankfully, it was nixed from our mandatory viewing.
I want a film to haunt me for days afterward, but not with images like those in "Salo."
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ReplyDeleteI was just reading about Salo on imdb. Insane! I draw the line at shit eating. Well, not in my personal life, but I don't want to watch it on film!
ReplyDeleteI'm deletin' shit. I own this thread!
ReplyDeleteBecky, I'd just like to pipe in and say that as much as I have to agree that sometimes witnessing things that are sad, graphic and/or pathetic can be somehow entertaining or enlightening, let me also say that I find your general additude about gratuitous graphic depictions, especially those of violent rape or overly gory human degradation is pretty refreshing.
ReplyDeleteI have to argue with my boyfriend over stuff like this sometimes, and what really irritates me is that I'm often forced into a corner of against the defense of an artist's liberal right to create such depictions. I'm not ever saying they should not be allowed to do it. I'm just saying there's no real reason to do it, and there's no real reason to enjoy it.
Overly general, perhaps, but for the record, I like where you stand on these sorts of things.
word on the street is that the print of the tati movie is in horrible condition "sacree bluuu"
ReplyDeletebut still a brilliant picture none the less.
homz