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knives wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2023 10:34 pm I didn’t know there was multiple cuts. I just watched whatever was on Kanopy.

Kino release has a 117-minute theatrical cut and 124-minute preview cut

It was the theatrical in that case.

Can you add Salvatore Piscicelli’s Immacolata e Concetta, l’altra gelosia?

Interesting lesser-known title from Italy that explores the politics of sex, sexuality and gender in local power structures. Seen some references to Fassbinder, but there’s also a lot of Elena Ferrante, with it being set in a working class, Neapolitan milieu. The film borders on the erotic in certain moments, but remains earthy and grounded until the conclusion, which provides a twist on the usual gender politics and code of honour in the local culture.

Added

Matrix (First Dream) (Hollis Frampton)
Frampton superimposes the three films from his Solariumageani cycle upon each other along with some tinting, and the result is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Summer Solstice depicted cows grazing in a field, and has a hypnotic repetitive quality I enjoy, but gains a lot from being joined with Autumnal Equinox, which shows the same animals being slaughtered. The latter is a tough watch on its own but there's enough distance from that material here for the message to be appreciated without the need for any disturbing visuals. Then there's Winter Solstice, which shows footage from some kind of steelworks. I'm not entirely sure how that fits in thematically, unless it's showing where the machines used to slaughter the animals meet their own match. In any case, it adds further variety to the visual mix. (And where, you might ask, is the spring equinox represented? That film ended up being repurposed as Ingenivm nobis ipsa pvella fecit, part of which is presented on Criterion's Frampton Blu-ray.)

Matrix (First Dream) can be found on YouTube, which even in that highly compromised form yields some stunning visuals:

Future SNAPSЖOT clues?

Also, two very special music videos:

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People
For many millennia, the universe had to do without a Thriller video. Thankfully, for the last few years of that dry spell, the gods saw fit to tide us over with this

Suicide: Dream Baby Dream
From the YouTube comments: "I watched this during my first acid trip and this woman's faced morphed into every influential women in my life as the song went on. Family, friends, exes, celebrities. Quite the experience"

Saw two absolute powerhouses that needs to be on everyone’s radar.

From Bulgaria The Unknown Soldier’s Patent Leather Shoes knocked my socks off and was the biggest surprise I had in a while. I’d be curious if Vulchanov saw Davies Children or if Davies later saw this as the two are so simpatico that it would be quite a shock for them to have arrived here so independently.

Vulchanov combines reality and memory in a way that at first I wasn’t sure if this was a film of documentary footage retrofitted to a fantasy. He’s so quietly observational at first that when narrative and then the slips of memory finally do become evident they hit hard. Remembering childhood is more about remembering experiences than events. So, for example, an event like a shipment of fish for the town being spoiled isn’t so significant, but the experience of the smells and sights as maggots squirm around is shocking and overwhelms the rest of the memory.

Speaking of overwhelm, the film focuses its runtime primarily on a wedding that we are never sure how we got to, but clearly stamped the protagonist for the rest of his life as detail after detail is magnified including the ones that never happened.

Perhaps more familiar to the board I saw Herz’s The Ninth Heart, a children’s fantasy that shows why the creator of The Cremator absolutely should be making kids films. The plot lost me in the later half, but the characterization until then locked me in and the later half’s aesthetic maintained a great relationship so that I didn’t care if I understand everything.

With visual effects by Jan Švankmajer!

therewillbeblus wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 6:59 pm West Indies: I was bowled over by this historical musical, noted in response to DI's less enthused reaction here

Grateful you mentioned this. (Thanks to DI as well, because as far as film goes, “never seen anything quite like” is an endorsement no matter what follows; Maslin in the Times was also enthusiastic when it came to New York in 1985.) It’s a searing and shrewd original work, feels bracingly contemporary, and I agree with you that its repetition is a key component – watching the same actions and impulses reworked through different systems and language is part of the point, and it’s deliciously observed. Theatrical tradition, jumbled chronology, and immersive, swirling camerawork keep you dizzy and trapped. I would go so far as to agree with DI that, if you’re not excited by technique and aren’t sympathetic to frustration-by-design, it can wear on you by the end.

Spoiler

I really wanted the measured hope of the end to be catharsis, for the camera to mirror the opening credits and for the final dance number to spill off the ship and out into the industrial park through which we entered. But I understand why that did not happen.

A couple similarly concerned works from this year that are not nearly as formally audacious (and are not Apocalypse Now) but I still found worthwhile:



Sergio Giral’s Maluala concerns the colonial Spanish government’s attempts to recapture runaway slaves in 19th-century Cuba. The former slaves have formed a series of settlements in hard-to-reach forested mountain areas; that is where the film is at home as well. It would be a straightforward historical drama but for its immersion in those communities, their freedoms and responsibilities. Those few scenes that take place back in the governor’s mansion have a stodgy re-enactment vibe. You get the feeling Giral (who at one point waited tables with Néstor Almendros!) maximized his resources. There’s some exciting action, a pleasing sense of composition, an expressive use of sound. (There’s a great soundtrack, but it and some of the style place this firmly in the 1970s.) It also finishes before the 90-minute mark and delivers a satisfying and meaningful ending.

.gif from a terrible-quality DVD

Shyam Benegal’s Junoon takes place during a 19th century uprising against the British Corporation that ruled India, and at first it can be distressing how poorly it ticks the boxes of the awards-bait historical epic. (It topped that year’s Filmfare Awards and maxed out its three spots at the National Film Awards.) Its battle scenes shouldn’t make anyone’s reel, and for all its beauty there’s no ostentatious display of time or place. (Other faults fit that genre: Clunky drama, clashing acting styles.)

But it’s more a captivating national domestic drama. Benegal explores how a forcibly conjoined society reacts when destabilized. Different races, religions, and classes that have intermingled on so many levels for so long must suddenly renegotiate their positions, particular cultural and personal differences coming up against universal cravings for power, freedom, and love. Actions can have layers of consequences, something Benegal complements with screens and depth to stage layers of action and disconnect. The film’s music ranges from Sufic qawwali to warbled Christopher Marlowe to Vanraj Bhatia’s haunting theme.

(There’s an extra weird layer in that Shashi Kapoor, who has been in Merchant/Ivory productions, who produced this film, and whom I’ve seen as the milquetoast hero in a several Bollywood films these last few months, plays a character obsessed with the daughter of a woman played by his real-life English-born wife, Jennifer Kendal.)

I totally forgot Metsurit. Please add it to the list.

It's only 6 minutes long!

Added

Kummatty (Govindan Aravindan)





This is the second Aravindan film (after Thamp̄) restored through a Film Foundation/Film Heritage Foundation partnership, and the only three things you need know before watching it are: (a) that you should, and should do so without reading anything about the plot; (b) that you can; and (c) that while translating “Kummatty” as “The Bogeyman” is surely incomplete, it’s a fine enough starting point. “Kummatty will get you” is effective playground curse and possible summoning spell.

There’s a child’s-eye view of a world where all sources of information – superstition and legend, science and school, tradition and performance and experience – seem valid, exciting, terrifying. Blissfully, Aravindan is averse to exposition and embraces simplicity. Anything can happen, anything can be true. And though for a while a lot of what happens is children peering around corners or children running or dancing through vast spaces, anything does happen and the important things are true.

Last viewing of the month came as a pleasant surprise. I’m surprised, but not really that When a Stranger Calls has gotten such a harsh rep in recent years as it’s everything Halloween’s not. Whereas Carpenter marked territory by building an epic centered around the victims of an epic force of death whose shape is without person as a Van Helsing sort of doctor ponders about the root of evil Walton laughs. Our killer is very much a human to the point of being pathetic. He’s a barely functioning madman who seems to have fallen into evil like Larry Fine into a pair of fingers which only makes Durning’s bloviating on his hatred seem silly with a taste of the sinister. This is a film which doesn’t trust the psychology of the police. Even our Laurie Straud, played amazingly by Carol Kane, is fairly well sidelined as she develops into a complete person off screen not relying on victimhood. I will say though that the sequel is even better, by leaps and bounds, and anyone who still after my pleading doesn’t like this should at least check that one out.

swo17 wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 4:00 pm ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 1979

VOTE THROUGH NOVEMBER 30

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles.

As a reminder, today is the last day to vote!

The 1979 List



##. Film (Director) points/votes(top 5 placements, aka likely votes in decade list)/highest ranking

01. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola) 271/14(8)/1
02. Die Ehe der Maria Braun [The Marriage of Maria Braun] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) 218/10(7)/1(x4)
03. Manhattan (Woody Allen) 211/11(6)/2
04. Alien (Ridley Scott) 183/10(4)/1(x2)
05. Ста́лкер [Stalker] (Andrei Tarkovsky) 161/8(4)/1(x3)
(tie) All That Jazz (Bob Fosse) 161/8(5)/1
07. Tess (Roman Polanski) 122/6(3)/1
08. Starting Over (Alan J. Pakula) 120/6(3)/1(x2)
(tie) Nosferatu – Phantom der Nacht [Nosferatu the Vampyre] (Werner Herzog) 120/7(3)/1
10. Die Blechtrommel [The Tin Drum] (Volker Schlöndorff) 111/5(5)/2
11. 復讐するは我にあり [Fukushū suru wa ware ni ari] [Vengeance Is Mine] (Shōhei Imamura) 103/8/6
12. Being There (Hal Ashby) 102/7(1)/1
13. Real Life (Albert Brooks) 97/5(1)/2
14. The Brood (David Cronenberg) 93/7(2)/3
(tie) Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones) 93/7/6
16. Buffet froid [Cold Cuts] (Bertrand Blier) 91/5(3)/4(x3)
17. The Jerk (Carl Reiner) 90/5(3)/3(x2)
18. Norma Rae (Martin Ritt) 82/5(2)/3
(tie) Hardcore (Paul Schrader) 82/7/6
20. 空山靈雨 [Kong shan ling yu] [Raining in the Mountain] (King Hu) 78/5(2)/4(x2)
21. Chilly Scenes of Winter (Joan Micklin Silver) 74/5(1)/3
22. My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong) 72/5/8
23. Amator [Camera Buff] (Krzysztof Kieślowski) 66/3(3)/3
24. Woyzeck (Werner Herzog) 65/6(1)/5
25. Cristo si è fermato a Eboli [Christ Stopped at Eboli] (Francesco Rosi) 64/3(2)/2
26. West Indies ou les Nègres marrons de la liberté [The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty] (Med Hondo) 62/4(1)/3
27. Saint Jack (Peter Bogdanovich) 57/4(1)/5
28. The China Syndrome (James Bridges) 55/3(1)/1
29. Die dritte Generation [The Third Generation] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) 45/4/8
30. The Warriors (Walter Hill) 43/4/8
31. Wise Blood (John Huston) 42/3/8
32. Hukkunud Alpinisti hotell [Dead Mountaineer's Hotel] (Grigori Kromanov) 40/2(1)/2
33. Asparagus (Suzan Pitt) 39/3(1)/3
34. Scum (Alan Clarke) 38/3/9
(tie) Breaking Away (Peter Yates) 38/4/11
36. Mad Max (George Miller) 36/2/6
(tie) Time After Time (Nicholas Meyer) 36/2/6
38. I... comme Icare [I... for Icarus] (Henri Verneuil) 35/2(1)/5
(tie) 山中傳奇 [Shan chung chuan chi] [Legend of the Mountain] (King Hu) 35/4/12
40. Dalla nube alla resistenza [From the Clouds to the Resistance] (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet) 34/2/6
(tie) That Sinking Feeling (Bill Forsyth) 34/2/6
42. Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam) 32/3/10
43. Arrebato (Iván Zulueta) 31/3(1)/5
(tie) ルパン三世 カリオストロの城 [Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro] [Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro] (Hayao Miyazaki) 31/2/9
(tie) The Muppet Movie (James Frawley) 31/3/10
46. Сказка сказок [Skazka skazok] [Tale of Tales] (Yuri Norstein) 29/2/9
47. Lemminge [Lemmings] (Michael Haneke) 28/2/11
48. Murder by Decree (Bob Clark) 27/2/8
(tie) Jaguar (Lino Brocka) 27/2/9
50. Fascination (Jean Rollin) 26/2/9

ALSO-RANS

The Black Stallion (Carroll Ballard) 24/2/10
जुनून [Junoon] [The Obsession] (Shyam Benegal) 24/2/13
La luna (Bernardo Bertolucci) 23/2(1)/4
The Lady in Red (Lewis Teague) 14/2/17
豪俠 [Hao xia] [Last Hurrah for Chivalry] (John Woo) 14/2/18
Deváté srdce [The Ninth Heart] (Juraj Herz) 14/2/19(x2)
The Human Factor (Otto Preminger) 7/2/20
The Wanderers (Philip Kaufman) 5/2/23

ORPHANS

Film (Director) highest ranking

قضیه شکل اول... شکل دوم [Qazieh-e shekl-e avval... shekl-e dovvom] [First Case, Second Case] (Abbas Kiarostami) 11
Série noire (Alain Corneau) 14
Messidor (Alain Tanner) 8
Llámenme Mike [Call Me Mike] (Alfredo Gurrola) 23
Rock 'n' Roll High School (Allan Arkush) 10
A kis Valentinó [Little Valentino] (András Jeles) 15
Сибириада [Sibiriada] [Siberiade] (Andrei Konchalovsky) 7
The In-Laws (Arthur Hiller) 10
10 (Blake Edwards) 14
Blue Remembered Hills (Brian Gibson) 24
A Intrusa [The Intruder] (Carlos Hugo Christensen) 2
Town Bloody Hall (Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker) 13
Radio On (Christopher Petit) 18
The Tempest (Derek Jarman) 20
Phantasm (Don Coscarelli) 11
Escape from Alcatraz (Don Siegel) 5
Metsurit [The Forest Workers] (Erkko Kivikoski) 25
A Little Romance (George Roy Hill) 18
Осенний марафон [Osenniy marafon] [Autumn Marathon] (Georgi Danelia) 6
Национална класа до 785 ccm [Nacionalna klasa do 785 ccm] [National Class Category Up to 785 ccm] (Goran Marković) 7
കുമ്മാട്ടി [Kummatty] [The Bogeyman] (Govindan Aravindan) 5
闇の狩人 [Yami no karyudo] [Hunter in the Dark] (Hideo Gosha) 15
The Birth of Magellan: Matrix (First Dream) (Hollis Frampton) 3
笑拳怪招 [Xiao quan guai zhao] [The Fearless Hyena] (Jackie Chan) 20
Scénario de 'Sauve qui peut (la vie)' (Jean-Luc Godard) 10
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis) 16
Old Boyfriends (Joan Tewkesbury) 24
O Amor das Três Romãs [The Love of the Three Pomegranates] (João César Monteiro) 11
Elvis (John Carpenter) 14
Over the Edge (Jonathan Kaplan) 6
Don Giovanni (Joseph Losey) 10
Kate Bush: Them Heavy People (Keef) 22
爛頭何 [Lan tou he] [Dirty Ho] (Lau Kar-leung) 24
Schalcken the Painter (Leslie Megahey) 20
Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert) 7
唐山五虎 [Tong san ng foo] [Five Superfighters] (Lo Mar) 19
Genèse d'un repas [Origins of a Meal] (Luc Moullet) 7
Zombi 2 [Zombie] (Lucio Fulci) 8
Le Navire Night (Marguerite Duras) 8
Almost a Movie (Michael J. Murphy) 25
The Jericho Mile (Michael Mann) 7
Hair (Miloš Forman) 19
十九歳の地図 [Jūkyūsai no chizu] [A 19-Year-Old's Map] (Mitsuo Yanagimachi) 12
একদিন প্রতিদিন [Ek Din Pratidin] [And Quiet Rolls the Dawn] (Mrinal Sen) 17
La batalla de Chile: El poder popular [The Battle of Chile: The Power of the People] (Patricio Guzmán) 9
Corps à cœur [Drugstore Romance] (Paul Vecchiali) 22
Ajándék ez a nap [A Priceless Day] (Péter Gothár) 8
Heartland (Richard Pearce) 3
A Perfect Couple (Robert Altman) 16
Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton) 3
Immacolata e Concetta, l'altra gelosia [Immacolata and Concetta: The Other Jealousy] (Salvatore Piscicelli) 11
1941 (Steven Spielberg) 5
Rocky II (Sylvester Stallone) 12
Salem's Lot (Tobe Hooper) 24
The Riddle of the Sands (Tony Maylam) 20
蝶变 [Dip bin] [The Butterfly Murders] (Tsui Hark) 25
Čovjek koga treba ubiti [The Man to Destroy] (Veljko Bulajić) 11
Тир [Tir] [Shooting Range] (Vladimir Tarasov) 12
Winter Kills (William Richert) 21
苦惱人的笑 [Ku nao ren de xiao] [Troubled Laughter] (Yang Yanjin & Deng Yimin) 2
Les Petites Fugues (Yves Yersin) 15
Suicide: Dream Baby Dream 13

17 lists submitted

Thanks for all your hard work swo. Surprised to see Rock n Roll High School orphaned though. It seems very in tune with some of the board’s quirks. I’ll just blame those ugly, ugly musicians.

Thanks swo! And apologies to whoever had Genèse d'un repas orphaned - totally slipped my mind and would've placed high

1. Starting Over
2. Stalker
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Buffet froid
5. Arrebato
6. Real Life
7. The Jerk
8. Chilly Scenes of Winter
9. Norma Rae
10. West Indies

Thanks swo.

Thanks for all the work, swo, and thanks for letting me play!

Oops. Missed this one. Apocalypse Now and Alien would have been my top 2. The China Syndrome would have been around #6. I'm curious who topped their chart with it. Anyway, good work as always, and looking forward to the final decade results!

Thanks swo! I voted when it went live but don't remember if I was the other number one vote for Starting Over. If I wasn't, it was probably close

You were

Toland's Mitchell wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 8:43 pm The China Syndrome would have been around #6. I'm curious who topped their chart with it.

It was me. A professional matter (I come from chemistry world), I guess.

The Very Same Munchausen (1979, Mark Zakharov):
Already coming into this one as someone who fell in love with Zakharov’s previous effort, An Ordinary Miracle, I was not expecting this film to be even better. In its beginning, both films are relatively similar, both ensemble films devoted to the nature of storytelling anchored by a gleeful performance by Oleg Yankovsky who shares the screen with a woman who loves him despite his eccentricities and whose love of telling storytelling drives his life, indeed I was worried that Munchausen would play it safe and basically become An Ordinary Miracle 2: Electric Boogaloo. Yet while An Ordinary Miracle seems focused on the creation of stories and how it affects the characters in it, Munchausen is far more focused on the death of storytelling, the titular character slowly getting threatened by the changing landscape of his culture into one purely obsessed with rationality rather than fantasy, even despite the fact that Munchausen’s tales are true. And from that, Munchausen becomes a far darker tale than Ordinary Miracle, centering on betrayal, censorship, the distortion of an artist’s legacy, and the hypocrisy of governments in their attempts to reappraise artists that they ruined, all brought about by a horrifying tonal shift in the end of the first half of the film. Yet despite its darkness, Munchausen is also a really engrossing film with consistently delightful escapades, a very likable lead alongside a bountiful amount of excellent Russian character actors, tons of great comedy, and always focused on keeping the audience guessing on what tone the next scene will have from comic to tragic to surreal to beautiful. A masterpiece of the highest order and my highest recommendation even if it may take a bit for you to get truly accustomed to its wavelength like it did for me.