I saw Von Trier's Antichrist a couple of days ago. In high definition.

I could have done without the HD, maybe, given the nature of a couple of scenes.

I don't honestly know quite what to think of it to be honest. It's quite an ordeal at times (as his films tend to be). He's a strange director. I always think the films of his that I've seen are worth seeing, but I don't quite understand the message he is shilling, and this one feels almost like self parody at times and two fingers up to the people who accuse him of misogyny.

Let's just say that it's not a first-date movie.

I'm not even sure if I'd recommend it all, to be honest.

Currently watching Dawn of the Dead (Remake). I've seen it once before but I find it a fun movie, despite the intense gory effects.

Last night I watched "Changeling". The reason I became aware of this one was that it had an IMDB rating close to 8 while starring Angelina Jolie at the same time. To be honest I haven't seen many of her movies but that because they wouldn't seem my genre in the first place. Anyways, the movie started out pretty good but lost its momentum around 45 minutes into. Thereafter it went from being a drama to being a biopic with scenes that would merely give account of police report files. I blame it premimarly to sloppy writing that even Mr Eastwood's directing couldn't fully save.

Jolie's performance was suprising good but the cast that stood out most was John Malkovich - I didn't even realized it was him until the credits. Bottom line, a decent 7/10 and some Chinatown references for the ones who care.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0824747/

Young Adam (also my avatar) starring Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Peter Mullen, and Emily Mortimer

Note: This film was an independent film from a few years ago and since it's not out-of-print, your best bet is the used bin at video places. I'm saying this because I only highly recommend this film to see it for yourself.

(I wrote this a few years ago and edited it a lot to fit in a post.) Based on the book by Alexander Trocchi, the story takes place in 1950's Glasgow and tells the story of Joe (McGregor) who doesn't have a plan of where he's going in his life and is a drifter currently working as a second-hand man with barge owners Leslie (Mullen) and his given-up-on-life wife, Ella (Tilda).

One day while at a stop on the barge, Joe discovers a woman's lifeless corpse wearing only a thin petticoat floating in the river. As questions are asked and the investigation for a suspect begins, Joe suddenly for some reason looks at Leslie's wife Ella in a whole different way. It is not explained but Joe unexpectedly starts a full-blown affair with Ella right under Leslie's nose. As the present story continues, we are eventually taken back into Joe's past, the first scene of him meeting a girl named Cathy. Again as with Ella, Joe begins an affair with her that's both disturbing and unpredictable. What the movie does so well is intertwining the two stories together so you can't tell if it's the past or the present, giving the audience the feeling of the character's hopelessness of their lives.

In simpler words, you'll either love or hate this movie. You'll either hate it for the gloom feelings you get that never cease,or you'll embrace it and attempt to delve deeper into the main characters and their motivations. Just about every scene of this movie is unpredictable, and Joe is veryunpredictable, which is what makes this movie so intriguing. The movie never tells you what Joe is thinking, only what's going on on the outside. An example of this is the first opening shots of the film with a swan floating peacefully on the water. Underneath the surface it is constantly pedaling it to move. In other words, there's more beneath the surface. To sum it all up, this movie is not a happy one and very dark. The ending isn't even assuring but will instead leave people in thoughts or feeling nothing.

The Social Network. A well made, and I guess socially relevant movie, that is more than a bit over-hyped.

The one I'm looking forward to is Black Swan.

Dataman325 wrote:The Social Network. A well made, and I guess socially relevant movie, that is more than a bit over-hyped.

Saw it tonight.

Agree pretty much. I guess the Facebook phenomenon is worth documenting, but whilst the direction and dialogue it really very good, I'm not really sure if the underpinning story is that compelling. I quite enjoyed the Timberlake Napster guy character - I didn't realise that he played such a part. I'd sure like to own 7% of Facebook right now.

I still don't understand why the site is valued at $200bn though when they haven't found an effective way of monetising the traffic they get (correct me if I'm wrong).

I get the impression that a proper talking heads documentary with the real protagonists would be just as interesting, if not more so.

I saw Hour of the Wolf last night as it is a David Lynch Guest Director selection at AFI 2010.

I liked it. While it is not a great film by any stretch, it seems influential to me none-the-less. It's one part horror film, one part classic Bergman and one part psychological drama/mystery.

I think it clearly references Psycho.


It also seems to have influenced other filmmakers in that:


If some of the scenes in the film don't wig you out a bit, you might want to check your pulse.

It may just be a coincidence but Max von Sydow plays the troubled protagonist in Hour of the Wolf and plays a psychiatrist trying to help a troubled protagonist in Shutter Island (2010). It's possible that if you do enough roles you see both sides of the coin, but it does make you wonder whether Bergman's film influence the casting ...

As an aside, there is a specialized company that just took the mono soundtrack for Psycho and converted it to a multi-track score including splitting even the musical instruments apart, sound effects, vocals. This would be another terrific candidate for that kind of effort. The score and sound effects are quite interesting in the film and certainly compliment the eerie story but if turned into a modern soundtrack so that everything is not coming directly from the front speaker it would be a lot more involving.

Btw, add me to the list of those looking forward to seeing Black Swan. I saw a preview trailer when I surfed over to the AFI site. Looks quite interesting.

The American starring George Clooney, toninight. I like George, but this was terrible. I would say to stay away.

Um, yeah, Á l'intérieur.

Lots and lots of blood and gore and somewhat shocking content. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief a little for a coherent story however this was pretty ridiculous. Beatrice Dalle plays the whacko reeking bloody havoc for reasons unknown, but when the twist/explanation comes I can't say that it raised much more than a shrug of the shoulders from me. I'd heard good things, and I enjoy horror so I was expecting more.

Not very scary and nothing to think about. Not really much to say other than that. Not for the faint hearted, and probably not for anyone expecting a child. At least it's only 80mins long.

Certainly not in the class of Haute Tension other (what I would consider) good French horror. An exercise in shlock horror and attempting to push boundaries, maybe, but there has to be a more compelling framework around it than this, in my eyes.

(btw, I like the neato image floating option - only just saw that)

I saw "The Lovely Bones" over the weekend and I really enjoyed it. I laughed, cried, got very angry...I felt a lot of emotions while watching it.

Isn't it also true that "Song to the Siren" plays at the end of the film, the same version from "Lost Highway" lol?

silenthiller119 wrote:Isn't it also true that "Song to the Siren" plays at the end of the film, the same version from "Lost Highway" lol?

Yes, it does.

Veronika Voss (1982) Rainer Werner Fassbinder

The story is about a sports reporter who has a chance encounter with an aging German film star in post-war Germany (1955). The actress seeks another film role and to re-energize her film career while struggling with mental illness and overwhelming drug use prescribed by an unethical psychiatrist. Think of it as Sunset Blvd. meets Marlene Dietrich meets Fassbinder.

The film depends on drawing the audience in to the allure of Veronika as a potion that men can not resist. Sadly the actress didn't seem sexy or alluring (nor can I imagine she was ever sexy or alluring) so it fails on a poor casting decision for me. However, Fassbinder is magic with his uses of light and darkness with a scene of Veronika meeting the sports reporter in the rain that continues to a scene with a street car that is one of the best scenes of pure cinematography that I have ever encountered.

The end of the film because autobiographical for Fassbinder in that


I'm also liking the floating image option for a linked image. Just select the icon that looks like a mountain with a sun over it and select floating left or right. Nice.

Just watched Scorsese's "After Hours". Oh my, what a treat. A nightmarish, surreal stringing together of odd coincidences happening to a poor man in just one night. You can clearly see Kubrick taking notes on this while working on the script to "Eyes Wide Shut". This one comes highly recommended (8/10).
Btw, it's an on-topic film, having recurring scenes in a diner including some talk about The Wizard of Oz...

Oh my Gosh, I just saw After Hours in my film class last week! It's a strange world!