Movies Serious Movie Discussion

[ufcfan4]

Ugh, they're making more? Are they trying to turn Dune into LOTR, create a whole universe across multiple films? Once I learned that the first one wasn't a standalone film, I was under the impression that it was a Part 1 and Part 2 situation. Fucking hell, man. As a film professor with students writing papers, I'll have to watch it because it's likely I'll get papers on it, but my viewings will be strictly business, and I'm not expecting much pleasure, though I'm always happy to be proven wrong with a great film.



For me, it's not about this style or that style, it's about execution case-by-case. 2001 is one of the greatest movies ever and it's a sci-fi movie that starts in prehistoric times with no dialogue for the first and last 20+ minutes. Hell, I'm also a huge fan of slow cinema, which is exactly what it sounds like. Good is good, and I just don't think that making movies by making an entire 2.5 hour movie nothing but set-up for a subsequent movie down the road is a good way to use the art of film. If you want to tell long, sprawling sagas, make a TV show. In short, it's the production model that's bugging me more than the quality of Villeneuve's filmmaking.



I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a fan, but I'm also not a hater. I still haven't seen Incendies, but I enjoyed Enemy (bonus points for ambition though it had more mood/atmosphere than psychology/philosophy and I would've liked more of the latter to fill the film out), Prisoners is a solid B+ that I warmed to more after repeat viewings (though many an SVU episode does it better, and the script was quite lacking, but Gyllenhaal turned in his most underrated performance and Jackman was solid all the way through), Sicario is also right there in B+ territory (more script problems, as the Del Toro arc was more compelling than the Blunt arc and we sort of lose track of Blunt as the film progresses, but I loved the depiction of the cartels and there were some excellent set-pieces), and Arrival is the closest that he's come to an A film but I still think that the film's time-language conceit is too goofy and deus ex machina for me to put the film in the same league as the sci-fi A team.

Blade Runner 2049 is interesting in that I'm not wild on Blade Runner, so I wasn't particularly eager to see the new one, but I literally have no memory of 2049. I remember watching it, but I don't remember anything about the plot or anything that happens in the film, nor do I remember whether I liked/loved or disliked/hated it. Nothing stuck. I'll have to rewatch that one to have an opinion. It's really just Dune that pissed me off, and again not because it's inherently bad, but because the production model of making and releasing a film that isn't a complete storytelling unit grinds my gears.

To go back to jeff's comment though in connection with yours here, it's true that I prefer Nolan's (and Cameron's) action-oriented style to Villeneuve's style. Villeneuve seems to want to combine an arthouse aesthetic with mainstream genre conventions and star power, but I don't think that he's cracked that code yet. He's not good enough with mood and atmosphere to rely on it like Kubrick or Lynch nor does he have anything particularly profound to say and so he cannot rely on conceptual interest like Tarkovsky or Cronenberg. But as I keep saying, cinematically speaking, I'll reserve judgment on Dune until I see the two films back-to-back and (hopefully) see him unfold a full, cohesive story.



I don't remember any details beyond Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin, and I remember their scenes being pretty actiony. It's certainly closer to Interstellar or Tenet than it is to 2001 or Stalker.

I wasn’t crazy about Enemy but I definitely thought it was an effective film. There is that one scene where Gyllenhaal and the doppelgänger meet and the latter starts enthusiastically barraging him with questions (what’s your birthday, etc) and Jake just has this look of regret like he knows he messed up by pursuing this curiosity. That, to me, is a real highlight of the film and strikes a sort of Hitchcockian note. Last shot of the film is cringe city. Not cringe like embarrassment- cringe like legitimately catches you off guard creepy.

A lot of his other movies I’ve really enjoyed. Prisoners had this very palpable intensity to it. Jackman’s intensity was very realistic and not really like any other performance I’ve seen from him. But Gyllenhaal stole the show. Could have easily gotten a best supporting actor nod just as Benicio probably should have for Sicario.

 

[HUNTERMANIA]

@Bullitt68 Incendies is a really great movie. I liked Blade Runner 2049 a lot as well. The story isn't super amazing but it's just good enough to get into with the visual eye candy and audio ear candy of the whole movie. I thought it was one of the few movies that I could rewatch made in the past several years.

I liked Prisoners, too.

 

[Bullitt68]

So this is the final week of the class term, which means that the students have been off writing their final papers, which means that I have used this "off" week as my spring break...and I have of course used my spring break to watch shit. I've been on the Criterion Channel all week marathoning Kurosawa films. It's been A LOT of years since I've watched most of these, during which time I've learned so much more about and seen so much more from Japanese film history, but it's still not even a question: Kurosawa is the GOAT. I appreciate Ozu a lot more now, certainly his late period; Mizoguchi is even better than Ozu, and Sansho the Bailiff in particular is one of the greatest films ever made; and Kon Ichikawa is the most underrated Japanese director ever and one of the most underrated filmmakers of all time, and I've seen way more of his films and he's amazing. But Kurosawa leaves them all in his dust.

No Regrets for Our Youth is really his first great film, and it's fascinating to not only see a female protagonist lead the narrative charge but more specifically to see Ozu's beloved Setsuko Hara as Kurosawa's leading lady, but for me (and many others) Kurosawa really "arrives" with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, in both of which he pairs Toshiro Mifune with Takashi Shimura. I'd only seen Drunken Angel once a million years ago and didn't even really remember it, while Stray Dog I remembered more clearly plot-wise but didn't remember having strong feelings about. Drunken Angel is solid, right there in the B or B+ range, while Stray Dog is an impressive A-. The plot is a little dumb and not as hard boiled as it could've been, but the themes are there and Mifune delivers his first legitimately great performance of many for Kurosawa.

Rashomon is a masterpiece, nothing new there, although rewatching it I'm always struck anew by how hilariously awesome the woodcutter's version of the story is with that inept and cowardly version of the duel. Throne of Blood was also awesome on the rewatch. Easily the best Shakespeare adaptation in film history, such a great distillation and transformation of all that makes Macbeth the probing character study that it is, while Kurosawa's mastery of film form by this point in his career is on full display from the cinematography and editing to the sound. I also rewatched Yojimbo and Sanjuro and I still say that the sequel is the superior film. Yojimbo is a classic, and it's undeniably awesome, but it's a little slow and the action is sparse and not very well done, whereas Sanjuro climbs my Kurosawa rankings higher and higher every time I watch it. It's hilarious, it's moving, we go deeper into Mifune's psyche, every supporting character is amazing, and formally it's one of Kurosawa's tightest and most impressive films.

And then the final two films that I've watched were his later non-Samurai films, The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low. No pun intended, but I've never been all that high on High and Low. The premise is killer but it's always felt a little flat. The Bad Sleep Well, on the other hand, rose quite a bit in my esteem. Another Shakespeare adaptation for Kurosawa, this time Hamlet, and while it takes a while to get where it wants to go, once we're with Mifune and we follow him down into the pit of revenge, it's fantastic, and that ballsy and bleak ending still packs a punch.

I didn't go to the end of his career on this run-through, as I rewatched Kagemusha and Ran not too long ago. I also skipped the longer Ikiru and Seven Samurai. But still a productive refresher on the undisputed champ of Japanese cinema

Now I could start catching up on all of the recent Oscar titles, but while on Criterion my eye went to the career of a filmmaker whose work I've never seen before. @Rimbaud82, @HenryFlower, @moreorless87, you guys familiar with Luis García Berlanga? He's Almodóvar's pick for the GOAT and he and Buñuel are the two titans of Spain, but while I've seen most of Buñuel's output (and I've never been wild about it), I haven't seen a single film of Berlanga's. I'm thinking of doing a deep dive and watching everything the Criterion Channel's got...

 

[HenryFlower]

So this is the final week of the class term, which means that the students have been off writing their final papers, which means that I have used this "off" week as my spring break...and I have of course used my spring break to watch shit. I've been on the Criterion Channel all week marathoning Kurosawa films. It's been A LOT of years since I've watched most of these, during which time I've learned so much more about and seen so much more from Japanese film history, but it's still not even a question: Kurosawa is the GOAT. I appreciate Ozu a lot more now, certainly his late period; Mizoguchi is even better than Ozu, and Sansho the Bailiff in particular is one of the greatest films ever made; and Kon Ichikawa is the most underrated Japanese director ever and one of the most underrated filmmakers of all time, and I've seen way more of his films and he's amazing. But Kurosawa leaves them all in his dust.

No Regrets for Our Youth is really his first great film, and it's fascinating to not only see a female protagonist lead the narrative charge but more specifically to see Ozu's beloved Setsuko Hara as Kurosawa's leading lady, but for me (and many others) Kurosawa really "arrives" with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, in both of which he pairs Toshiro Mifune with Takashi Shimura. I'd only seen Drunken Angel once a million years ago and didn't even really remember it, while Stray Dog I remembered more clearly plot-wise but didn't remember having strong feelings about. Drunken Angel is solid, right there in the B or B+ range, while Stray Dog is an impressive A-. The plot is a little dumb and not as hard boiled as it could've been, but the themes are there and Mifune delivers his first legitimately great performance of many for Kurosawa.

Rashomon is a masterpiece, nothing new there, although rewatching it I'm always struck anew by how hilariously awesome the woodcutter's version of the story is with that inept and cowardly version of the duel. Throne of Blood was also awesome on the rewatch. Easily the best Shakespeare adaptation in film history, such a great distillation and transformation of all that makes Macbeth the probing character study that it is, while Kurosawa's mastery of film form by this point in his career is on full display from the cinematography and editing to the sound. I also rewatched Yojimbo and Sanjuro and I still say that the sequel is the superior film. Yojimbo is a classic, and it's undeniably awesome, but it's a little slow and the action is sparse and not very well done, whereas Sanjuro climbs my Kurosawa rankings higher and higher every time I watch it. It's hilarious, it's moving, we go deeper into Mifune's psyche, every supporting character is amazing, and formally it's one of Kurosawa's tightest and most impressive films.

And then the final two films that I've watched were his later non-Samurai films, The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low. No pun intended, but I've never been all that high on High and Low. The premise is killer but it's always felt a little flat. The Bad Sleep Well, on the other hand, rose quite a bit in my esteem. Another Shakespeare adaptation for Kurosawa, this time Hamlet, and while it takes a while to get where it wants to go, once we're with Mifune and we follow him down into the pit of revenge, it's fantastic, and that ballsy and bleak ending still packs a punch.

I didn't go to the end of his career on this run-through, as I rewatched Kagemusha and Ran not too long ago. I also skipped the longer Ikiru and Seven Samurai. But still a productive refresher on the undisputed champ of Japanese cinema

Now I could start catching up on all of the recent Oscar titles, but while on Criterion my eye went to the career of a filmmaker whose work I've never seen before. @Rimbaud82, @HenryFlower, @moreorless87, you guys familiar with Luis García Berlanga? He's Almodóvar's pick for the GOAT and he and Buñuel are the two titans of Spain, but while I've seen most of Buñuel's output (and I've never been wild about it), I haven't seen a single film of Berlanga's. I'm thinking of doing a deep dive and watching everything the Criterion Channel's got...

i’ve had The Executioner on my watchlist forever, but haven’t seen any of his movies yet

 

[Busgosu]

you guys familiar with Luis García Berlanga? He's Almodóvar's pick for the GOAT and he and Buñuel are the two titans of Spain, but while I've seen most of Buñuel's output (and I've never been wild about it), I haven't seen a single film of Berlanga's. I'm thinking of doing a deep dive and watching everything the Criterion Channel's got...

Yeah, Berlanga is one of the greatest Spanish directors of all time, but I don't think he ever reached the peak of genius of Buñuel. His best films are without a doubt: Bienvenido Mr Marshall, El Verdugo and Placido. All three are absolute masterpieces and should be revered. Be warned tho, I honestly think someone who is not familiar with Spain's history, specially during the period they were relased, may not be able to fully enjoy them. From the mid 80s forward his films got incrementaly worse.

 

[Bullitt68]

i’ve had The Executioner on my watchlist forever, but haven’t seen any of his movies yet

This one and Welcome Mr. Marshall! were the two that I most wanted to see. I just finished the latter and it was stupendous. Hilarious satire but also brilliant filmmaking. A self-reflexive narrator, playful uses of editing and dream sequences. It's always great when brilliant filmmakers are able to experiment and push the medium's possibilities, as well as challenge viewers and hit on profound themes, through comedy. In addition to being a wildly fun time at the movies, Welcome Mr. Marshall! is also very sophisticated cinema.

Yeah, Berlanga is one of the greatest Spanish directors of all time, but I don't think he ever reached the peak of genius of Buñuel.

Haha, already with just one film of his under my belt I'm ready to proclaim Berlanga's superiority to Buñuel. Aside from Un Chien Andalou and Belle de Jour, Buñuel just does nothing for me. I'm happy to admit that I don't get him. But Berlanga is walking that tightrope of very enjoyable entertainment and very insightful art.

His best films are without a doubt: Bienvenido Mr Marshall, El Verdugo and Placido. All three are absolute masterpieces and should be revered.

I'm going chronologically, so it'll be a while before I get to those '60s classics of his, but I'm very excited to go through more of his career.

Be warned tho, I honestly think someone who is not familiar with Spain's history, specially during the period they were relased, may not be able to fully enjoy them.

Oh, yeah, I knew that going in. I've read up on Franco and mid-20th Century Spain, plus I also read a few write-ups on Welcome Mr. Marshall! to add some more depth. I have no doubt that I'm still going to miss nuances, both in Spanish culture and in the Spanish language, but as a gringo viewer I made sure to go in prepared

From the mid 80s forward his films got incrementaly worse.

On Criterion Channel, they have 12 films of his, starting with Welcome Mr. Marshall! and ending with Everyone Off to Jail. After Long Live the Bride and Groom from 1970, it skips to 1981 and then the last four films are from 1981, 1982, 1987, and 1993. I'll be watching them all and I'll at least get an initial sense of how his career progresses. At least he's started off by putting a very strong foot forward...

 

[HenryFlower]

This one and Welcome Mr. Marshall! were the two that I most wanted to see. I just finished the latter and it was stupendous. Hilarious satire but also brilliant filmmaking. A self-reflexive narrator, playful uses of editing and dream sequences. It's always great when brilliant filmmakers are able to experiment and push the medium's possibilities, as well as challenge viewers and hit on profound themes, through comedy. In addition to being a wildly fun time at the movies, Welcome Mr. Marshall! is also very sophisticated cinema.

just added that to my watchlist as well. i’m gonna have to lift my subscription hold on CC (was approaching a year w/o using it, but also didn’t wanna cancel) & get to work

 

[Busgosu]

Haha, already with just one film of his under my belt I'm ready to proclaim Berlanga's superiority to Buñuel. Aside from Un Chien Andalou and Belle de Jour, Buñuel just does nothing for me. I'm happy to admit that I don't get him. But Berlanga is walking that tightrope of very enjoyable entertainment and very insightful art.

On Criterion Channel, they have 12 films of his, starting with Welcome Mr. Marshall! and ending with Everyone Off to Jail. After Long Live the Bride and Groom from 1970, it skips to 1981 and then the last four films are from 1981, 1982, 1987, and 1993. I'll be watching them all and I'll at least get an initial sense of how his career progresses. At least he's started off by putting a very strong foot forward...

To me Buñuel's best are The exterminating angel and Viridiana, but to each his own I guess.
If there is no Berlanga's film from 1985 then you will be missing out what was arguably his last good release: La vaquilla.

 

[Bullitt68]

just added that to my watchlist as well. i’m gonna have to lift my subscription hold on CC (was approaching a year w/o using it, but also didn’t wanna cancel) & get to work

Every year, I have occasions to think that this is the year that I'll cancel my subscription...and then another year goes by...and another. I just can't not have all of those films and all of those special features at my disposal. After David Bordwell's recent death, I watched a bunch of his video essays; after each Kurosawa film I rewatched, I spent some time going to specific scenes and listening to the commentary tracks included. There's just too much awesomeness to give it up!

To me Buñuel's best are The exterminating angel and Viridiana, but to each his own I guess.

I don't remember either that well - I only watched each once a long time ago - but I remember liking Viridiana more than The Exterminating Angel. The latter is more like one of his late films The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, which I don't really care for even with Delphine Seyrig in the cast.

If there is no Berlanga's film from 1985 then you will be missing out what was arguably his last good release: La vaquilla.

Nope, that one's not included.

 

[Bullitt68]

@HenryFlower and @Busgosu, I watched my second Berlanga film, Boyfriend in Sight. Another home run. Welcome Mr. Marshall! is a more "intellectual" film, its ambitions are "higher" with its political satire, and it's an absolute treat, but I enjoyed Boyfriend in Sight more. It's not as ambitious with its satire, but it's still incisive and hilarious. However, the childhood conceit and the "lighter" comedy made for a more enjoyable time in the world and with the characters. Now with two of his films under my belt, I'm getting two major vibes from his filmmaking: Fellini and Tati. Much like Fellini, particularly in I Vitelloni and most of all in Amarcord, there is such a distinct and charming sense of place and of the people who inhabit these places. In Boyfriend in Sight, I loved the way that Berlanga was skewering, but playfully and with fun as his watchword, the adults and their myopic obsession with class and manner. (The recurring gag with the woman thinking that guys with proper manners are waving to her from the water when they're actually drowning and waving for help was inspired.) He doesn't hate these people, he's not denigrating them or making fun of them; he knows them well, he knows this world, and he's poking fun at them. (Do you agree with this, Busgosu?) And then much like Tati, Berlanga is just a master of the gag. His formalism is nowhere near as extravagant or as intricate as Tati's, but it absolutely feels like it's play time at the beach, and like Tati he's able to be brilliant and profound while also being funny and lighthearted. The best part of Boyfriend in Sight, though, is the coming of age storyline, with the teenage girl who's being told, before she's ready, that it's time to be a woman, but who instead sticks to her own time table...and, sure enough, becomes a woman before our eyes. But it's not played for melodrama, and instead is done by way of some pretty outrageous comedy, culminating in an epic war between the kids and adults over the kids' desire to be allowed to stay kids. And yet, the genius is in the way, without melodrama, there is still such genuine and warm emotionality.

I'm close to getting a scholarly book off the ground which will be all about authorship in film and in which each chapter will be devoted to a different filmmaker, and I'm honestly wanting to add a chapter on Berlanga. Two films and I'm smitten with a new filmmaker.

 

[Spam On Rye]

So this is the final week of the class term, which means that the students have been off writing their final papers, which means that I have used this "off" week as my spring break...and I have of course used my spring break to watch shit. I've been on the Criterion Channel all week marathoning Kurosawa films. It's been A LOT of years since I've watched most of these, during which time I've learned so much more about and seen so much more from Japanese film history, but it's still not even a question: Kurosawa is the GOAT. I appreciate Ozu a lot more now, certainly his late period; Mizoguchi is even better than Ozu, and Sansho the Bailiff in particular is one of the greatest films ever made; and Kon Ichikawa is the most underrated Japanese director ever and one of the most underrated filmmakers of all time, and I've seen way more of his films and he's amazing. But Kurosawa leaves them all in his dust.

No Regrets for Our Youth is really his first great film, and it's fascinating to not only see a female protagonist lead the narrative charge but more specifically to see Ozu's beloved Setsuko Hara as Kurosawa's leading lady, but for me (and many others) Kurosawa really "arrives" with Drunken Angel and Stray Dog, in both of which he pairs Toshiro Mifune with Takashi Shimura. I'd only seen Drunken Angel once a million years ago and didn't even really remember it, while Stray Dog I remembered more clearly plot-wise but didn't remember having strong feelings about. Drunken Angel is solid, right there in the B or B+ range, while Stray Dog is an impressive A-. The plot is a little dumb and not as hard boiled as it could've been, but the themes are there and Mifune delivers his first legitimately great performance of many for Kurosawa.

Rashomon is a masterpiece, nothing new there, although rewatching it I'm always struck anew by how hilariously awesome the woodcutter's version of the story is with that inept and cowardly version of the duel. Throne of Blood was also awesome on the rewatch. Easily the best Shakespeare adaptation in film history, such a great distillation and transformation of all that makes Macbeth the probing character study that it is, while Kurosawa's mastery of film form by this point in his career is on full display from the cinematography and editing to the sound. I also rewatched Yojimbo and Sanjuro and I still say that the sequel is the superior film. Yojimbo is a classic, and it's undeniably awesome, but it's a little slow and the action is sparse and not very well done, whereas Sanjuro climbs my Kurosawa rankings higher and higher every time I watch it. It's hilarious, it's moving, we go deeper into Mifune's psyche, every supporting character is amazing, and formally it's one of Kurosawa's tightest and most impressive films.

And then the final two films that I've watched were his later non-Samurai films, The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low. No pun intended, but I've never been all that high on High and Low. The premise is killer but it's always felt a little flat. The Bad Sleep Well, on the other hand, rose quite a bit in my esteem. Another Shakespeare adaptation for Kurosawa, this time Hamlet, and while it takes a while to get where it wants to go, once we're with Mifune and we follow him down into the pit of revenge, it's fantastic, and that ballsy and bleak ending still packs a punch.

I didn't go to the end of his career on this run-through, as I rewatched Kagemusha and Ran not too long ago. I also skipped the longer Ikiru and Seven Samurai. But still a productive refresher on the undisputed champ of Japanese cinema

Now I could start catching up on all of the recent Oscar titles, but while on Criterion my eye went to the career of a filmmaker whose work I've never seen before. @Rimbaud82, @HenryFlower, @moreorless87, you guys familiar with Luis García Berlanga? He's Almodóvar's pick for the GOAT and he and Buñuel are the two titans of Spain, but while I've seen most of Buñuel's output (and I've never been wild about it), I haven't seen a single film of Berlanga's. I'm thinking of doing a deep dive and watching everything the Criterion Channel's got...

All of the golden age Japanese directors are amazing. It's nice to see Mizoguchi finally getting put in there with the other giants like Kurosawa and Ozu. He was kind of unheard of in the West until dvds came along. Now Criterion just needs to put out some more Naruse. He's the best of the Godfathers of Jap cinema imo and never gets talked about in the West. Watch Yearning and Sounds of the Mountain. Doesn't get any better.

Also, I 100% agree with Throne Of Blood as the best Shakespeare adaptation. Also has one of the best finale's of any film ever made.

 

[Bullitt68]

All of the golden age Japanese directors are amazing. It's nice to see Mizoguchi finally getting put in there with the other giants like Kurosawa and Ozu. He was kind of unheard of in the West until dvds came along.

In my academic neck of the woods, Mizoguchi was the first Japanese filmmaker to be canonized and written about adoringly in the '50s and '60s. Ozu then replaced him in the '70s and '80s atop the Japanese cinema hierarchy among academics. Kurosawa ironically is underrated in academic circles since he's so popular. But yeah, Mizoguchi's amazing. Sisters of the Gion and Osaka Elegy are fantastic from his pre-WWII period and then his post-WWII run is phenomenal.

Now Criterion just needs to put out some more Naruse. He's the best of the Godfathers of Jap cinema imo and never gets talked about in the West. Watch Yearning and Sounds of the Mountain. Doesn't get any better.

Haha, I have a tab open right now on him. I was going to watch his Criterion stuff after I finished my Kurosawa binge, but last week I was on an Ichikawa panel at a film conference and have spent so much time in a Japanese cinema headspace of late that the call of Berlanga's films was irresistible, so I opted for that change of pace. But Criterion has 16 of Naruse's films. I'm running out of time during this little spring break of mine - I've got a lot of student papers to grade next week and then I'm back in the classroom the week after that - so I'm probably not going to have time to marathon both Berlanga's and Naruse's films, but Naruse's on my list. I've only seen one silent film (Street Without Shame) and one sound film (Late Chrysanthemums) from him. But both of the films that you mentioned are on there, so they will be watched eventually.

Also, I 100% agree with Throne Of Blood as the best Shakespeare adaptation. Also has one of the best finale's of any film ever made.

Mifune does such a great job at first recoiling from his wife's prodding but then at the end holding stronger even than his wife and just going balls out crazy with his demented power trip. Him in the forest with the witch and then talking shit with his troops is hubris at its best, all the pride before the fall under the hail of arrows. Classic.

 

[Spam On Rye]

In my academic neck of the woods, Mizoguchi was the first Japanese filmmaker to be canonized and written about adoringly in the '50s and '60s. Ozu then replaced him in the '70s and '80s atop the Japanese cinema hierarchy among academics. Kurosawa ironically is underrated in academic circles since he's so popular. But yeah, Mizoguchi's amazing. Sisters of the Gion and Osaka Elegy are fantastic from his pre-WWII period and then his post-WWII run is phenomenal.



Haha, I have a tab open right now on him. I was going to watch his Criterion stuff after I finished my Kurosawa binge, but last week I was on an Ichikawa panel at a film conference and have spent so much time in a Japanese cinema headspace of late that the call of Berlanga's films was irresistible, so I opted for that change of pace. But Criterion has 16 of Naruse's films. I'm running out of time during this little spring break of mine - I've got a lot of student papers to grade next week and then I'm back in the classroom the week after that - so I'm probably not going to have time to marathon both Berlanga's and Naruse's films, but Naruse's on my list. I've only seen one silent film (Street Without Shame) and one sound film (Late Chrysanthemums) from him. But both of the films that you mentioned are on there, so they will be watched eventually.



Mifune does such a great job at first recoiling from his wife's prodding but then at the end holding stronger even than his wife and just going balls out crazy with his demented power trip. Him in the forest with the witch and then talking shit with his troops is hubris at its best, all the pride before the fall under the hail of arrows. Classic.

I found out about Japanese films from Donald Richie books I got from the library in my teens. I love Dostoyevsky and Shakespeare so I fell in love with Kurosawa right away and have binged anything and everything 30s to 60s Japan for the past 30 years. Also a fan of Yamanaka, Kinoshita, Kawashima, Shimizu, Gosho, Ichikawa, Kobayashi etc etc. Love it all. Even the goofy stuff like Suzuki and Katsu productions.

 

[Highway99]

What of Fukasaku? Ya'll need to cut off your pinkies for such a blatant offense.

 

[Bullitt68]

I found out about Japanese films from Donald Richie books I got from the library in my teens. I love Dostoyevsky and Shakespeare so I fell in love with Kurosawa right away and have binged anything and everything 30s to 60s Japan for the past 30 years. Also a fan of Yamanaka, Kinoshita, Kawashima, Shimizu, Gosho, Ichikawa, Kobayashi etc etc. Love it all. Even the goofy stuff like Suzuki and Katsu productions.

Nice, Donald Richie is the American keeper of Japanese cinema. For me, I haven't seen that much pre-WWII stuff, and pretty much all that I have seen are from Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa, while I would still like to see more from the '50s-'70s. Relatively recently, I marathoned a ton of Japanese New Wave stuff from the postwar period.

I'm loving this Japanese New Wave stuff that I've been watching. @europe1, @Rimbaud82, @moreorless87, you guys ever venture into the nūberu bāgu? Whenever I teach Japanese cinema in any film history classes, I usually stay pretty much to the 1930s-1960s, and I usually screen a Kon Ichikawa film (typically, I screen The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain, or An Actor's Revenge). After the unit on Japanese cinema, then I go into the French New Wave and showcase its influence with looks at the British New Wave (I either screen Alfie or If....) and what I call the American New Wave (I always show Midnight Cowboy, especially since it was directed by one of the British New Wave directors who went to Hollywood). But the Japanese New Wave is interesting because it wasn't so much influenced by the French New Wave as it sprang up at the same time as the French New Wave. At the same time, from around the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, not only were filmmakers from the "West" and the "East" both experimenting with narrative and aesthetic form, they were also starting to more explicitly politicize their work. It's fascinating stuff.

I started with Seijun Suzuki, but I'm not a big fan of his. Tokyo Drifter is fascinating and Branded to Kill is obviously his calling card, but neither one of them really wowed me. For Japanese crime shit, I much preferred Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower, which is the best Japanese film noir that I've seen (yes, I'm looking at you, Stray Dog - Kurosawa ain't got shit on Shinoda). And speaking of Shinoda, europe, I know that you and I are big fans of The Sword of Doom. Well, if you haven't seen Shinoda's Assassination or Samurai Spy, get on that shit ASAP. Samurai Spy especially I think that you'd dig, because it has both Leone vibes and Chang Cheh vibes.

Now if we're talking about the best New Wave filmmaker, I've got to give it up to Shōhei Imamura. Stolen Desire and Endless Desire are both great, Pigs and Battleships and The Pornographers are even better, and The Insect Woman is his crowning achievement and possibly the GOAT New Wave film. The close second is Nagisa Ōshima. He struck me as the most Godardian, particularly in his debut film, Street of Love and Hope, and most notably Night and Fog in Japan, which not only has the Alain Resnais tip of the hat in the title but which has a narrative that made me immediately think of Godard's later film The Chinese. The reason that Ōshima is famous, though, is for his sexually-charged shit, from Cruel Story of Youth (which I enjoyed but didn't think was anything special) and Violence at Noon (fascinating film with a really cool aesthetic) to Sing a Song of Sex (hilarious film with decent satire, too) and Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (more interesting than enjoyable but still solid) all the way up to his most controversial films, In the Realm of the Senses and Empire of Passion. In the Realm of the Senses is one of the wildest movies you'll ever see, and no surprise it was a French co-production, as only the films of Catherine Breillat go harder in the paint than In the Realm of the Senses.

I also just watched Kurahara's short film noir Intimidation and it seems similar to that one, as well. I'm liking these 1950s and 1960s Japanese crime films. They have the B&W look and feel of noir, before the Suzuki-style color-filled, over-the-top crime extravaganzas.

My entry into Japanese movies were Samurai movies. I grew up a huge martial arts movie fan so obviously I was going to be a huge Samurai movie fan. Then I started to watch and enjoy the dramas and the crime films, as well as of course the more contemporary horror movies.

 

[Bullitt68]

Also watched my third Berlanga film, The Rocket from Calabuch. Right off the bat, it was weird seeing Santa, aka Edmund Gwenn, as the star. Much like Anthony Quinn in La Strada, it's bizarre to see Hollywood stars acting in international productions like this, but he was great. This one stood out as rather light fare, definitely a "minor" film. No heavy themes, no big political targets (but some small ones), just a lovely tribute to small-town life. Gwenn plays a rocket scientist who decides he's tired of his job and is in need of a vacation...except that he's one of the leading experts on rockets and bombs and so when he cuts and runs the world loses its mind and every country around the world is urging its citizens to be on the lookout for the missing rocket scientist. He enjoys his little getaway in a tiny coastal village, where he becomes enamored of the people and is welcomed as one of their own. Honestly, I got massive E.T. vibes from this one, except with a little old man instead of a little alien. Sweet and fun with a moving ending, but not a world-beater.

Now I'm going to watch Oz while I eat and then watch a few old K-1 Grand Prixs (on YouTube in 480 because Fight Pass took K-1 off and haven't put it back up ) but next up is Miracles of Thursday in which Berlanga's going to satirize the Catholic Church. @Busgosu, maybe you can help me with this: This is the film that was so controversial that the censors stopped it and made Berlanga rewrite it under the supervision of the Catholic Church. But from what I've been reading, it sounds like the version on Criterion is the uncensored original, not the censored Church-approved one. Do you have any info on the censorship battles with this one, and do you know if in fact his original version was preserved? I'm watching whatever's on Criterion, but I want to know if this is his original vision or if this is a censored film like Kubrick's Lolita.

 

[Busgosu]

@Bullitt68 ,yeah, Berlanga sold the script for that film to some producer but shortly after It was transferred to a company which was ran by the Opus Dei, which are a religious organization/sect, equivalent to scientology in Spain and these imposed changes and forced Berlanga to work with a priest to rewrite his script and oversee the shooting of the film. Jorge grau was also hired to do some reshoots after filming was completd.
Regardless of all these issues It is still one of Berlanga's bests and It still keeps his critical view and the main focus on his concept of collective failure on a small community/village which could be projected on the massive failure that was Spain during most of the 20th century.

 

[Rimbaud82]

Actually not familiar with Berlanga at all. Some of his stuff sounds really interesting though, maybe I'll follow suit and watch a few.

 

[Bullitt68]

@Bullitt68 ,yeah, Berlanga sold the script for that film to some producer but shortly after It was transferred to a company which was ran by the Opus Dei, which are a religious organization/sect, equivalent to scientology in Spain and these imposed changes and forced Berlanga to work with a priest to rewrite his script and oversee the shooting of the film. Jorge grau was also hired to do some reshoots after filming was completd.
Regardless of all these issues It is still one of Berlanga's bests and It still keeps his critical view and the main focus on his concept of collective failure on a small community/village which could be projected on the massive failure that was Spain during most of the 20th century.

Aha, so they got to him before he started production. That's too bad. And reshoots after filming? This is sounding like The Magnificent Ambersons. Do you happen to know which part(s) were shot and added without Berlanga?

Actually not familiar with Berlanga at all. Some of his stuff sounds really interesting though, maybe I'll follow suit and watch a few.

If you like Fellini and/or Tati, you'll enjoy his films, and at the very least I think that you'd enjoy them from the perspective of history and what Berlanga was working through and satirizing.

 

[Busgosu]

Aha, so they got to him before he started production. That's too bad. And reshoots after filming? This is sounding like The Magnificent Ambersons. Do you happen to know which part(s) were shot and added without Berlanga?

Apparently the censorship was not too happy with the ending and wanted a real miracle to happen and San Dimas had to show up. Only the first 45 mins or so belong to the original script, the second half was entirely rewritten. They tried to force Berlanga to keep re-shooting scenes constantly and when he refused, they hired Grau and it is unclear how many scenes he directed.
Funnily enough even after putting up with their bs, the censors still gave the film a 3R rating and it bombed when released. It might be the biggest commercial failure of Berlanga´s career.
If you haven't come across this, there's this website ran by a foundation which has some interesting facts on his bio and filmography. The guy at one point even volunteered for the blue division when they joined the nazi army in the eastern front to help save his father whom had a death penalty upon him, unlike most of the other volunteers who were in it because of their falangist ideology. Very little is widely known about the blue division (later called blue legion) but those guys went through hell in there, if he made it back and retained his sanity he must have been tough as nails.

https://berlangafilmmuseum.com/en/biography/