World/Independent Cinema Discussion Thread • Page 3

Top of the Lake was not great. The plot was too convoluted and stupid, taking the worst aspects of the first season and amplifying them. It was a completely fine miniseries with a definitive arc and ending, and having the main character go through such similar trials again does not really work. There is a lot of really strong moments, but the third act is so silly that it brings everything else down.

 

A Quiet Passion was fine. Michael Koresky is my favorite critic, but I can never see what he sees in Terrence Davies' films. They seem too stately and rigid; part of the point of his films is the trauma and anguish underneath it in the facade of the period (here Civil War America), but they leave little long lasting impact. However, one of the most interesting things about his films are the way women talk so frankly about their disappointments and inevitable submission to the gender norms of the period. It provides some great quotes, like "Never play happy music at a wedding. It is too misleading."

 

Heyyy so we can talk about independent American cinema in here too ya? I've had Knight of Cups, Anomalisa, and Everybody Wants Some! on Bluray for quite awhile now and I haven't watched any of them yet. I have a lot of down time for the next week so, what should be first?

 

All good choices, but Malick always comes first.

 

I thought that because I own a smart TV it would allow for my Blutooth headphones to be able to connect but I guess not. I'll have to watch tomorrow.

 

55th New York Film Festival Main Slate Announced

 

I need to watch Anomalisa again, that movie messed me up.

 

Do you have a PS4 or a Fire Stick or anything? You can connect them through that.

 

I really enjoyed Cristian Mungiu's Graduation. The Romanian New Wave was very in vogue a few years ago, but the main directors of the movement are still releasing incredible work. It is about the conflict between morality and self-interest, and the ways in which these things intersect in a country that has embraced the selfishness and corruption of capitalism while still stuck in a post-communist cultural rut. Mungiu cloaked his cultural criticism in period pieces and in subcultures, but Graduation is very much about an everyman in modern Romania.

Eastern European cinema is important to watch because of the bleakness involved in their lives. Obviously Eastern Europeans are not the most disadvantaged people by any reasonable measure, but they are stuck in a loop where the glory days are over, but even those glory days never translated to much for the average person. American cinema still holds onto the possibility of the future, but Eastern European cinema is relentlessly bleak, not just in the actual plot but in the colors they use and the setting they film in. It feels like an aimless people just running out the clock on their own existence. Graduation is set around a girl trying to get into a good college, an obvious positive step, but even then it is coated in compromise and pragmatism; she must get into a good college so she can escape the decaying city and leave her friends and parents behind. She must get into the college by any means necessary, even if those methods are not particularly moral. Existentialism may be a Western European idea, but it really shows in practice in the former Soviet bloc.

 

Nocturama is a mesmerizing, disturbing tour de force—and one of the best films of the year

A little late on that but dope

 

Has anyone watched any Raul Ruiz? Watched my first today (Comedy of Innocence) and I really liked it. His way of merging relatively traditional narrative with straight up AG images was wonderful.

Also, Locarno prizes for Wang Bing and Isabelle Huppert! Locarno: Wang Bing’s ‘Mrs. Fang’ Wins Golden Leopard

 

The Unknown Girl was fine, but it felt like more of the same.

The Trip to Spain is more of the same as well, but it is still a fun minor series. Dealing with Coogan's post-Philomena fame adds a lot of humor.

 

I get the criticism but I'd still rather see the Dardenne brothers playing it safe than just about anything else

Has anybody seen Staying Vertical? I really liked Stranger by the Lake but have seen some pretty poor reception

 

Yes, it's good! Not Stranger by the Lake good (that's one of my absolute favorite recent films) but it's quite a trip. A lot more surreal.

 

I keep trying to watch Sundays and Cybele but every time I do something comes up and I can't finish it.

 

TIFF lineup was announced today
TIFF '17 expands its slate with a slew of new Festival films

 

Weird line up so far. Only like 10 of the 25~ films I was hoping for/expecting. Still more to come next week though. My girlfriend and I have 30 tix to share over the festival.

 

Finally watched The Other Side of Hope. Both that and Le Havre are such compassionate films that, especially given our current climate, deserve a much wider audience.

 

Le Havre definitely deserved a bigger audience when it came out. European arthouse cinema is usually so bleak so its sincerity was not appreciated.

 

Have you seen anything else by him? He's definitely one of my favorites around. Le Havre is especially incredible.

 

I believe I watched The Man Without A Past years ago but I quite honestly don't remember it. If you or @Morrissey have a couple of recommendations, I'd love to watch more of his films on my next day off

 

That's my favorite of his! The Match Factory Girl and Drifting Clouds are both essential too.

 

Awesome, I'll do a triple feature my next day to myself.

 

Got all my TIFF tickets locked down. Only 1 of my first choices was unavailable, so I did pretty good this year.