View Story | 242 comments
Comments: Expand Shrink Hide (Always) | Indented Flat (Always)
There are certain national cinemas I am woefully behind on, like the Indian school. Does anybody have suggestions when it comes to Bollywood?
An agnostic not because I don't know if there's a God, but because I don't care.
by filmgeek83 on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 04:45:06 PM PDT
...but, i hate hearing about plot. a conundrum...
i really love good cinematography and images, and, am always happy to receive recommendations about that...just don't tell me what the movie is about, okay?
by james risser on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 04:49:47 PM PDT
[ Parent ]
Beautiful diary.
A few of my favorites:
Battleship Potemkin. Eisenstein's masterpiece. Wild Strawberries and Scenes from a Marriage, my picks from Bergman's spectacular litter. The Bicycle Thief, Vittorio de Sica's postwar masterpiece. La Dolce Vita, because how could you forget Fellini. Matador, not Almodovar's best movie, but perhaps the most breathtaking opening scene in film. Motorcycle Diaries, a recent favorite with the angelic Gael Garcia Bernal and a message that redeems leftist politics in an inhospitable time. Ran, because you can never have too much Kurosawa.
Hanoi didn't break John McCain, but Washington did.
by Dallasdoc on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:01:54 PM PDT
Potemkin: loved
Motorcycle Diaries: bored the hell out of me
Ran: liked, but preferred "Yojimbo" :)
Birding in New England: advocacy for birds and birders.
by juliewolf on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:11:12 PM PDT
I'm a sucker for pretty movies, and they don't come prettier than Ran.
I can see how Motorcycle Diaries could bore some, but the scenery alone kept my jaw on the floor. The leftist Odyssey plot was just gravy.
by Dallasdoc on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:14:51 PM PDT
It does not take many words to tell the truth. - Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
by Gabriele Droz on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:20:07 PM PDT
by Dallasdoc on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:21:12 PM PDT
a Russian land surveyor meets and old Goldi man who becomes his guide in the Siberian wilderness. Breathtaking photography and acting.
by Gabriele Droz on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:31:00 PM PDT
by Gabriele Droz on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:31:44 PM PDT
I love that it's Marty Scorsese who plays Vincent Van Gogh.
"We have to change our politics, and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans." -- Barack Obama
by jhutson on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:23:02 PM PDT
the visuals are stunning. I love the first story, where it ends with the little boy in the meadow of flowers, about to go ask a fox for forgiveness. Very surreal and beautiful.
Drop by Mackerel Street: Lit & Photo Blog
by decembersue on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:19:50 PM PDT
Come to think of it, i was tripping when i first saw THX 1138, also.
Don't ask.
"They're telling us something we don't understand"General Charles de Gaulle, Mai '68
by subtropolis on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 08:00:02 PM PDT
minutes of troops falling in to build tension.
My fave's The Seven Samurai.
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election. --Otto von Bismarck
by Ice Blue on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:00:39 PM PDT
and they don't come prettier than Ran
by LivesInAShoe on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:39:27 PM PDT
One of Fellini's better color efforts. But nothing can top the late 50's, early 60's run of La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2.
Fascism is capitalism in decay. -- Vladimir Lenin
by GiveNoQuarter on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 07:15:16 PM PDT
imo but for pure visual aesthetics nothing beats satyricon
by LivesInAShoe on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 08:34:31 PM PDT
If you'd like a real treat, load up Yojimbo, Then A Fistful of Dollars, the virtual copy made by Sergio Leone. You will see scenes where Eastwood's hand movements copy Mifune's. You will also know where the serape came from.
by LaFajita on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 05:24:47 PM PDT
La Dolce Vita, because how could you forget Fellini. : prefer 8 1/2
Ran: liked, but preferred "Yojimbo" : prefer "The Peach Orchard"
by LivesInAShoe on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:37:51 PM PDT
An Indian filmmaker, but it was made for an international audience.
"Lagaan" is pretty good. It includes the Bollywood style of breaking into song. It includes a basic, very basic, explanation of cricket. It has some delightful characters.
Against silence, which is slavery. -- Czeslaw Milosz
by Caneel on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:15:52 PM PDT
is the only Bollywod movie I have seen and I enjoyed it very much, especially the cricket. I live in Mexico and there aren't to many Indian movies available here, I'd like to see more. I loved the singing and dancing and the pretty colors.
by mariachi mama on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:33:26 PM PDT
Not a Bollywood-type film, it was made in India. Very touching, very beautiful. I think the same director as "Monsoon Wedding" -- Nair.
by Caneel on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:43:57 PM PDT
genius.
by Bluesman48 on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 09:00:58 PM PDT
http://www.imdb.com/...
Z
Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything. Harry S. Truman
by deepsouthdoug on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:24:10 PM PDT
by mariachi mama on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 06:34:10 PM PDT
I loved it. Unfortunately, it seems difficult to find.
Irma Vep It's fitting that French director Olivier Assayas' "Irma Vep," a movie about loving movies, is also about a jewel thief -- or, that is, an actress playing a jewel thief. Slinky, smart and funny, "Irma Vep" doesn't send up that sticky-sweet incense smell you usually get in movies about the joy of cinema-with-a-capital-C. It's a languorous love ballad, and a daring one, about the way moving pictures move, the way they hold light, the way they steal from us when we're not looking. The movie's in-jokes -- they poke fun at both the ponderousness of contemporary French filmmaking and the way the French view the "crassness" of American movies -- are amusing but never belabored, and they always take a back seat to the inky beauty of its images. You can talk film theory till you're blue in the face, but in the end, the thing that may haunt you most about a movie is a pair of eyes. There's a movie within a movie in "Irma Vep." René is an idealistic French director (played by French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud with a quivering irascibility that's touching because it reveals René's fragility) who's slowly unraveling emotionally. He's been approached to remake the 1915 Louis Feuillade serial "Les Vampires" and imports Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung (played by herself) for the lead.
Irma Vep
It's fitting that French director Olivier Assayas' "Irma Vep," a movie about loving movies, is also about a jewel thief -- or, that is, an actress playing a jewel thief. Slinky, smart and funny, "Irma Vep" doesn't send up that sticky-sweet incense smell you usually get in movies about the joy of cinema-with-a-capital-C. It's a languorous love ballad, and a daring one, about the way moving pictures move, the way they hold light, the way they steal from us when we're not looking. The movie's in-jokes -- they poke fun at both the ponderousness of contemporary French filmmaking and the way the French view the "crassness" of American movies -- are amusing but never belabored, and they always take a back seat to the inky beauty of its images. You can talk film theory till you're blue in the face, but in the end, the thing that may haunt you most about a movie is a pair of eyes.
There's a movie within a movie in "Irma Vep." René is an idealistic French director (played by French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud with a quivering irascibility that's touching because it reveals René's fragility) who's slowly unraveling emotionally. He's been approached to remake the 1915 Louis Feuillade serial "Les Vampires" and imports Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung (played by herself) for the lead.
by subtropolis on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 07:58:37 PM PDT
The Tunnel (Der Tunnel)
The last hour will have you on the edge of your seat.
The Chorus
The bad kid in this one will make you glad of your own. The music is celestial. Dinner Game (Le diner de Cons)
This one will have you laughing for a week.
The Closet (Le Placard)
Same director, same hilarity. Daniel Auteuil pretends to be gay to keep from getting downsized.
Wages of Fear (Salaire de la Peur)
Yves Montand at his coolest, Charles Vanel at his toughest, trucking nitroglycerine through the mountain passes.
All are readily available from blockbuster.com.
Enjoy!
by Bluesman48 on Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 08:59:23 PM PDT
wide narrow
View Story | 242 comments