movies movies movies, etc.

March 9, 2004 2:14 PM

NOT COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU - Great film site. Best part is the review section with pages of commentary on all sorts of splendid, taboo, controversial, or plainly difficult to discuss, and potentially unwatchable yet ambitious cinema. And also some others (with, of course, the usual suspects) My only complaint is some of the reviews spoil the actual ending of the films instead of discuss them very objectively, but that's the Internet for you. Still a fine fine site, I say. More reviews from the site found here.
posted by Peter H (7 comments total)

I saw The Hour of the Wolf not two weeks ago as part of my on-going quest to see if Bergman ever made a happy film. I'm still looking. Although in comparison to some, NBC could commission this as a sitcom....

"Johan’s internal conflicts, and the demons that represent them, manifest themselves, so that Alma also becomes their victim. As Alma speculates later in the film, it is her close relationship with Johan, the fact that she has come to “think like him and see like him,” that causes her to become subject to his “cannibals.” "

Having watched Trauffaut's 400 Blows this evening, I'm wondering what attracts me and others to challenging film. It's hardly entertainment in the traditional sense and surely I'd be having more fun watching Buffy all of the time.
posted by feelinglistless at 2:41 PM on March 9, 2004

I just tried to add Wicker Man to my Netflix queue, and to my shock and horror, discovered it was already there.
posted by drinkcoffee at 4:57 PM on March 9, 2004

listless, I just watched 400 Blows the other day. Hadn't seen it in 10 years or so. It's not that these films are challenging that draws me to them--it's that Buffy and its ilk are so mindnumbingly insipid that they repel me.

Neat site. Needs to add some Michael Haneke though.
posted by dobbs at 5:04 PM on March 9, 2004

Drole de Drame unwatchable? That movie is hilarious.
posted by muckster at 9:24 PM on March 9, 2004

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is an underappreciated masterpiece, on par with anything by Godard.
posted by Slagman at 5:17 AM on March 10, 2004

Slagman, you are absolutely right about the Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Anyone who has ever endured the punishment of a film by Goddard would have welcomed the sudden irruption of Don Knotts into the proceedings.

This site is a blast, and it's a pleasure re-visiting these old favorites. But the writing is singularly horrible, as if these reviews were being badly translated into English from the original Estonian. Maybe it's because these guys are students. The review of Tati's "Playtime" says that after the film tanked, Tati went on to make two "lenient" films before he died. What's a lenient film?
posted by Faze at 7:43 AM on March 10, 2004

Maybe he just let the cameras roll and people did whatever they felt like?

Speaking of which: what, no Warhol?
posted by chicobangs at 8:09 AM on March 10, 2004