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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 5, 2021 15:05:00 GMT
I saw two movies in Basque in the same week, and they are probably the only two movies that I have ever seen in the Basque language.
The first one was Akelarre, a Franco-Spanish-Argentinian production. About half of it is in Spanish. It takes place in 1609 when witches (i.e. young women) were apparently a problem in the area. An Inquisition team is sent by the king to purify the area, and they find possibilities very quickly. In a fishing village where the young wives gather at night to dance and sing while their husbands are out at sea for six month, it is obvious that they are witches. Shaving their heads and searching for Satan's seal is a major activity. As we all know, Satan's seal is an invisible mark that he has made. It makes you insensitive to pain, so the only way to find it is to keep sticking spikes into the body again and again.
Even the assistants have their doubts about the methods before long, but the investigations continue. Clearly this will not end well.
The other (French) film was Atarrabi & Mikelats by former American renegade Eugene Green. It is entirely in Basque and recounts the legend of the goddess Mari who basically rapes a mortal and then gives her two sons to the devil "because I don't have a maternal instinct." The Devil raises them in his monastery. One of them enjoys frolicking with the other devils, but the other does not and decides to leave the monastery when he becomes an adult. Unfortunately, the devil captures his shadow and refuses to release it. I thought this was an amazing poetic movie and was amused by certain details. It takes place in a timeless period where everybody still seems to be using candles and lanterns, but the devil has a laptop and listens to rap on his headphones. People are dressed relatively modern, but all of the people from the devil's monastery dress in red from head to toe -- shirts, trousers, trainers, underwear... At least you know with whom you are dealing if they come to the village.
The movie was actually filmed in Corsica.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 7, 2021 15:54:25 GMT
Bruno Dumont makes films to throw people off balance and France definitely qualifies. It is about a television news personality, France de Meurs, who is at the top of her profession, but all it takes is a small traffic accident to throw her out of kilter. She goes to war zones and she interviews top politicians, but something is off. We have a lot of these people in France, and I suppose that it is the same in just about all of our countries.
Visually, the main thing that struck me was the (to me) grotesque lipstick and makeup of the media person compared to her normal face when not being shown to the world.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 7, 2021 16:10:51 GMT
I am not a big fan of the actor Kad Merad, even though I have nothing against him. I wasn't expecting much from Un triomphe (The Big Hit in English), but the reviews caused me to doubt my judgement. It is based on a true story that happened in Sweden. A somewhat struggling actor is recruited to oversee a theatrical project in a big prison, but he has more ambition than expected. He pushes the prison authorities to extend the workshops far beyond what they had planned at first, because he wants to put on a production of Waiting for Godot, which he thinks is particularly appropriate in terms of prison life -- waiting for something that never happens.
The prisoners that he is working with are both motivated and wary. They are of totally different intellectual and educational levels, which adds to the challenge.
The play is finally presented, and it is a great success, so much so that it goes on tour to various other theatres. Finally, they are invited to the prestigious Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris, something beyond all of their wildest dreams. But what happens then is unexpected and corresponds completely to what happened in Sweden.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 13, 2021 17:27:31 GMT
I didn't know why Supernova was released late in France and not in very many cinemas. Now I know -- it is complete crap. No, that is a bit too extreme, but it is part of the "dementia" genre which has already been over exploited. There is obviously no suspense since we all know how these things end, but on top of that there was no other "problem." They were clearly well off, they had absolutely no conflict with family and friends, and they could go wherever they wanted. And they were totally and absolutely boring. Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci are good actors, but this was a complete waste of their time and talent.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 15, 2021 17:07:43 GMT
I couldn't go see Dune this morning because I had yet another medical appointment, so I went to see a shorter movie. (Dune is something like 2h35.)
So I went to see L'origine du monde, named after the Courbet painting. It has a rather strange plot because the heart of the protagonist stops beating, which worries him considerably. He is not dead but he does not seem to be alive either. His wife sets up an appointment with a female shaman who is quite convincing but claims that the only way to save him is for him to obtain a photo of his mother's vagina. Said mother is 82 years old and estranged from her son, but he decides to give it a try with his wife and his best friend, who is a veterinarian. And things get very weird.
Frankly, I did not really connect to the story, but there were some very interesting developments, especially the 10 minutes when everybody is completely naked to try to convince the mother that these are the new rules of the "neighbours festival." She doesn't buy it.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 15, 2021 17:45:39 GMT
I hope wide acceptance of medical aid in dying/assisted suicide will soon mark the end of the dementia genre.
I have no interest in seeing Dune, and don't care that it has a Québec director. When I was a teen, prospective boyfirends bored me quite enough with that drawn-out story.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 16, 2021 14:05:35 GMT
I am a big fan of director Denis Villeneuve, and Dune did not disappoint. It is far too Shakespearian for a lot of younger viewers, but having Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya as the stars will probably be enough to hold on to that crowd, as well as the spectacular production design. Villeneuve managed to get his say for how the movie was made and its pacing (purposely slow) and said he had to make only one concession -- keep to a PG rating for North America. Therefore, even though there is plenty of death (practically none of the 'mature' actors survives 'part 1'), there is very little blood.
One thing I will complain about, and which seems to hold true for every science fiction movie with 'action,' is that they have the most fabulous weapons imaginable which can blow up starships or reduce people to ashes so why are all of these movies full of fist fights, knife fights, gun fights and basic hand to hand combat? Oh, and one thing specific to this movie were the little flying vehicles they use instead of helicopters. They fly and look like dragon flies and the visual effect is really cool and believable. So why the fuck do their control panels look exactly the same as cockpits from the 1950s? We're in the year 11000 something, for chrissake! Switches to flip, dials to watch, not even any screens like in an Airbus!
Okay, that was a minor detail. The acting was more or less convincing if you want to believe that royalty still exists in those days and that all of the codes of discipline are still the same. Really?
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2021 15:00:56 GMT
Les Amours d'Anaïs (Anaïs in Love en anglais) is one of those typical French movies that a small international niche loves because it ignore traditional morals while remaining lighthearted at all times. Anaïs is a 30 year old woman living with her boyfriend, but she doesn't really love him so she moves on. She is what we consider to be "delightfully unstable" because she follows her impulses, the sort of thing that most of us wanted to do but never dared. She encounters an older publisher who attracts her, but it turns out that her real attraction is to a succesful woman author living with him, the irresistible Valeria Bruni Tadeschi. She jumps from one to the other like a flea. If only life were so simple!
This morning I saw the much more challenging Le genous d'Ahed (Ahed's Knee) by Israeli director Nadav Lapid. His film Synonyms had already indicated his opinion of his country, but this puts the nail in the coffin. I guess that's why he lives in France now. The film won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes festival.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 20, 2021 14:23:44 GMT
Justin Chon's Blue Bayou is one of the most depressing movies that I have seen in a long time, but that's because it's about a subject that is always depressing -- the deportation of people who have grown up in the only country they ever knew to the country where they were born and don't even speak the language. In this case, it is a Korean boy who was adopted in Saint Francisville at age 3, and things went downhill from there even though he later found happiness in married family life in New Orleans. Until it is all snatched away.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 22, 2021 14:16:24 GMT
La Troisième Guerre (The Third War) is another interesting military movie about the boredom of soldiers wanting action. Life is not quite as static as in The Desert of the Tartares, but any of you who have seen those little squads of soldiers patrolling in France since the terrorist attacks czan understand how grueling it must be to patrol the city of Paris all day every day with no terrorists in sight. This movie follows a female sergeant who strictly follows the rules because she wants to advance in her profession and the two main guys under her command, a veteran of operations in Mali who imagines terrorism everywhere and a newbie who became a soldier just because he wanted a stable job.
So they walk and walk and walk all day. They are not allowed to intervene in police matters as much as the two guys would like to. A Swedish tourist is pickpocketed on the metro and some of the passengers are outraged that the soldiers didn't go after the thief. They do go after a drug dealer in a park because he was looking "suspicious" and get yelled at by the undercover police who had been trailing him. Off duty, all they do is play anti-terrorist video games and get drunk. This is not the best army recruitment ad by any means.
Naturally, something finally happens at the end, nothing to do with terrorism, though.
The second (English subtitled) clip here is from the Busan film festival trying to make the movie look exciting...
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 23, 2021 17:39:11 GMT
Tout s'et bien passé (Everything Went Fine) is a much gentler film than most movies about assisted suicide. The principal reason is probably because director François Ozon was very close to the author of the book, Emmanuèle Bernheim, who died in 2017. She told the story of her father who suffered a stroke which ruined his life. Even though his health slowly improved, he decided that life was not worth living, so he asked Emmanuèle to organise his death. She didn't agree but there was no resisting her father.
She contacts a Swiss organisation (since of course assisted suicide is still illegal in France) and meets the legendary Hanna Schygulla to make arrangements. Meanwhile, she has to deal with her (supportive) sister and (indifferent) mother Charlotte Rampling while having flashbacks of her own childhood. And then there is her father's creepy gay ex-lover who seems mostly interesting in obtaining the ultra expensive watch that he was promised...
There is much less emotion in this movie than one might expect. (I have seen other Swiss suicide films and they were devastating.) But it was definitely the intention of the director, and I think that anybody who has dealt with dying parents can appreciate the toned down emotions.
Nevertheless, the fact that I used to be a minor friend of the star, André Dussollier, also affected me, even though I know that he had 3 hours of makeup every day to look as bad as possible. (He is about 12 years younger than the character he plays.)
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 24, 2021 14:10:27 GMT
Stillwater was a much better movie than I expected. Matt Damon is totally convincing as an Oklahoma roughneck. I was reading some of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and they are all over the place. Critics who didn't really like it were apparently expecting a thriller and also did not care for the cultural divide that was portrayed. And even though it was not a movie about the Amanda Knox murder case (which happened in Italy), some of them seemed to think that it should have been, so they didn't like when it strayed from the Knox story. And the Knox family also hated the movie because the daughter is not portrayed as being completely innocent. The review in Rolling Stone was much more in depth. I liked the fact that the movie took its time (2h11), which is one of the reasons that it was not a thriller and was happy to meander all over Marseille, including the Panier and the calanques while avoiding the standard tourist areas like the Canebière or the Vieux Port. Okay, in Camille Cottin's apartment Notre Dame de la Garde is perfectly framed in the main window, but since it is at the top of the hill, that is certainly the case in many flats in Marseille. I also liked the fact that not everybody spoke English magically like in so many of these movies.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 25, 2021 20:11:01 GMT
Quo Vadis Aida? is a completely distressing Bosnian movie, but of course it is no surprise when you go to see it because it is about the Srebenica massacre. It is a bit clumsy and propagandistic, but how could it be otherwise? The Serbians are hateful killers and the Dutch UN troops in charge of the camp are gutless worms. We already saw that on the news in 1995.
Aida is an interpreter working for the UN with a loving husband and two fine sons, ages 17 and 20-something. She is a total Mother Courage and does everything in her power to protect her family as things get worse and worse. She gets them into the UN compound and hides them in a more secure area when the Serbian troops force their way in. She also comes across young Serbian soldiers who remember her as their beloved teacher in school. But this is not enough.
Ratko Mladić was in charge of the Serbian troops, may he rot in hell forever, but he is still alive after being convicted of the Srebenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo. No suspense as to what happened to Aida's family -- they were among the 8000+ Bosnian Muslim men and boys slaughtered.
You kind of wish that the movie would end there but it doesn't. A few years later Aida returns to her old apartment in Srebenica. The Serbian woman living there is nice and kept a few personal items and photos that were still in the apartment when she moved -- but she is going to have to leave because Aida is back. Aida is going to return as a teacher to the school where she worked before the war.
And in the end, there is a school spectacle for the little ones. You see the son of the Serbian woman, a few Bosnian parents who survived, some of the Serbs who had been her students and who now have children in the school. Everybody is smiling, a bit sadly, sometimes with tears in their eyes and life goes on...
Yikes. The rest of us have it so easy.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 27, 2021 14:28:17 GMT
The Summit of the Gods is based on the manga by Jiro Taniguchi, which was already made into a live-action Japanese movie in 2016. But this is the Luxembourg-French animated film and definitely one of the best ones ever. Netflix bought it for most of the world for release in late November.
Anyway, it is about a photographer and mountain climber called Fukamachi who becomes obsessed with the myth of George Mallory who may have been the first person to make it to the summit of Everest in 1924, long before Hillary. Unfortunately, he never made it back. It turns out that another veteran climber, Habu Jôji, may have found Mallory's camera on one of his expeditions. (The plot thickens.)
This movie has some of the most stunning 2D animation that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, Netflix does not seem to have made an English language trailer yet.
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Post by lugg on Oct 4, 2021 18:56:15 GMT
If ever there was a film that would tempt me back into a cinema post Covid lockdown it was always likely to be No Time To Die. Bond on a TV / DVD never hits the mark. It did not disappoint . In fact it for me is definitely the best of Craig's Bond films and I think one of the best Bond fims ever. Standout was the cinematography. I wont say too much about the plot as I don't want to spoil it for any other Bond fan but I disagree re some critics who have criticised : the length ( not once was I bored)and judging by the lack of fidgeting and toilet breaks that seemed to be true for most in the packed cinema and Malik's acting ( yes he hams it up but isn't that an essential part of every Bond villain.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2021 10:26:42 GMT
After Love is a very sensitive and sad British movie. Mary has been married Ahmed for many years, and their lives seem to be mostly the satisfaction of routine. Mary converted to Islam so she could marry Ahmed and satisfy his Pakistani family. Ahmed has business in both Dover, where he lives with Mary, and Calais, just across the Channel so he goes back and forth for a number of days at a time. And then he dies.
After the funeral, Mary goes through Ahmed's stuff and finds a trace of a French woman. So she goes to Calais and anonymously encounters Geneviève, who also has a teenage son. What to do? Meanwhile the cliffs of Dover continue to crumble.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 5, 2021 18:03:22 GMT
I'm resigned to never understanding the allure of movies that are fundamentally sad or depressing to watch. I'll just accept that some people like to be made sad/depressed or that such a depressed condition is or can be ennobling or make one a better, more empathic person. In real life, I find depressed people or people prone to sharing their profound sadness to frequently be self-centered and the near opposite of empathetic. If they had actual empathy they'd get that too often they just needlessly drag the people around them down.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2021 18:10:19 GMT
The excellent Belgian film Les Intranquilles (The Restless) delves into the problem of bipolarity. Damien is a bipolar artist and Leïla restores furniture. She tries her best to get him to take his medication, but there is no controlling his manic phases. He has to be hospitalised from time to time, and the last time when it is really serious, he is released after a certain period as a heavily sedated zombie. His wife and son find this unbearable, but he is just too dangerous otherwise. Little by little he gets better, but he admits that he will never be normal...
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Post by onlyMark on Oct 5, 2021 18:18:13 GMT
I'm resigned to never understanding the allure of movies that are fundamentally sad or depressing to watch. Although attractive to some, they are also not for me. Not watching or being interested in them may have stunted my emotional growth, made me into a less understanding person regarding the hardships of others, maybe less empathetic, accused of being disinterested in the suffering of others and, well, all those other things like they open a window into a world I play no part in and have little knowledge of.... I acknowledge all these things may be the case but will I go and watch them? No. I'd watch them in my youth because it as expected and to see what they were all about, to experience them otherwise I couldn't say they held no interest for me if I hadn't. Now it's a pointless exercise.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 5, 2021 18:25:28 GMT
Le Sommet des Dieux looks beautiful, although I have absolutely no interest in "just because it's there" mountain climbing. I know/knew people for did it for survival, such as a fellow from Northeastern Italy who fought with the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, and crossed the Pyrenees.
Fumobici, I also know people who have a deeply mournful side (often due to family histories) but who are funny and good companions.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2021 19:28:09 GMT
I've reached the stage in life where I feel almost no need to justify my interest or disinterest in things. However, I remain fascinated by people who define themselves in negation.
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Post by onlyMark on Oct 5, 2021 20:00:14 GMT
However, I remain fascinated by people who define themselves in negation. Don't know what that means. Something like often saying you don't like something rather than something you do? Or just saying you don't like something for an effect?
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2021 20:27:49 GMT
Yes. It's people who tend to always say "I don't like" or "I have no interest in" and things like that in reponse to someone who says "I had the best cauliflower yesterday" or "I just saw a great movie about drug addicts." If you have never paid attention to the phenomenon, you will be amazed at how automatic is for some people even when they know nothing about a subject ("I'm sure I wouldn't like sushi."). I'm pretty sure it is a way of trying to sound more intelligent or worldly without as much risk of being questioned on the subject. ("Why do you think it is interesting?")
30 years ago I was that sort of person.
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Post by mich64 on Oct 5, 2021 22:02:47 GMT
I have always stayed away from sad movies. I have never watched Old Yeller, It's a Wonderful Life type of movies. Recently, A Dog's Purpose, I avoid them all. That is just me. I may be missing things in life but I only do what I think I can handle. I think there are options or choices for all kinds of different types of people but sharing reviews might entice a new choice for a lof of people to something may never have thought they might have enjoyed.
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Post by onlyMark on Oct 6, 2021 5:13:10 GMT
I'm pretty sure it is a way of trying to sound more intelligent or worldly without as much risk of being questioned on the subject. ("Why do you think it is interesting?") 30 years ago I was that sort of person. I'm glad your character has developed to rid itself of negativity/negation in this regard. I can only aspire to your heights. I will certainly now take note of how others react in this manner and monitor if I tend to do it myself.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 6, 2021 11:27:16 GMT
I will certainly now take note of how others react in this manner How many times have you been told (generally after mentioning a trip) "I have no interest in going to places like that." (Africa, India, et al.) ?
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 6, 2021 11:39:53 GMT
Okay, it was my turn to see No Time to Die. I will admit that the movie was busy enough not to get bored during the 2h47, but if I were to eliminate (once again) the pointless fist fights, car chases, gunfights and pseudo technical evil plot explanations, it would only last 1h30. And I am sorry to say that Daniel Craig is even less convincing in expressing human emotions than Jason Statham. What remains is the mystery of his unlimited bullets in battles against more than 50 killers who apparently would miss hitting an elephant in a closet. Bond gets wounded only once at the very end when he has killed everyone else. There is also the mystery of car chases on tiny mountain roads. Okay, we all know how easy it is to send your aggressors to their death in a ravine when you are a good driver, but I will never understand how half a dozen more cars can appear out of nowhere (secret criminal tunnels?) to continue the chase. And let's not forget the stunningly boring London scenes where Bond is always simultaneously chastised and validated. If only they would put him in charge of the petrol and other shortages in the UK.
As always, I appreciated the scenery of the various locations, but that is basically all I go to see.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 6, 2021 16:42:05 GMT
Now you're talkin' Kerouac. I would love to watch any Bond movie but it would have to be on the small screen. Admittedly the last movie I saw in 1980's was well worth an enormous cinema screen. I could never sit in the front row as it totally swallowed you up! I did however watch the premier night with the Royals. Oh Kate, you looked magnificent. Good choice of dress and hair style. Now I have to watch the movie on YouTube.
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Post by lugg on Oct 6, 2021 19:32:58 GMT
Okay, it was my turn to see No Time to Die. I will admit that the movie was busy enough not to get bored during the 2h47, but if I were to eliminate (once again) the pointless fist fights, car chases, gunfights and pseudo technical evil plot explanations, it would only last 1h30. And I am sorry to say that Daniel Craig is even less convincing in expressing human emotions than Jason Statham. What remains is the mystery of his unlimited bullets in battles against more than 50 killers who apparently would miss hitting an elephant in a closet. Bond gets wounded only once at the very end when he has killed everyone else. There is also the mystery of car chases on tiny mountain roads. Okay, we all know how easy it is to send your aggressors to their death in a ravine when you are a good driver, but I will never understand how half a dozen more cars can appear out of nowhere (secret criminal tunnels?) to continue the chase. And let's not forget the stunningly boring London scenes where Bond is always simultaneously chastised and validated. Ah ok you are not a Bond fan I can see/read. For me, with any Bond film, you just have to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride. I found it a great ride and Daniel Craig was outstanding imo.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 6, 2021 20:32:56 GMT
Actually I was a fan of Bond before the stories and special effects went too far over the top. Now they're competing with Marvel.
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