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I'll brace myself

Why? You think I'm harsh and critical or something?

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I know you're a Lynch guy - and @MusterX, this is relevant to you, too, so I'm calling you into the SMD from the SMC - so I'll mention that tonight officially ends my little Lynchathon. I rewatched Eraserhead for the first time since I saw it in film school nearly ten years ago, I watched The Elephant Man and The Straight Story both for the first time, I rewatched Blue Velvet a couple of nights ago, I rewatched Lost Highway last night, and as soon as I submit this post I'm hitting play on Mulholland Drive.

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I know you're a Lynch guy - and @MusterX, this is relevant to you, too, so I'm calling you into the SMD from the SMC

and as soon as I submit this post I'm hitting play on Mulholland Drive.

Mulholland Drive is the best thing Lynch ever made and quite frankly is one of the best films of the last 20 years. I'll stick by that statement. SMC had a pretty good discussion about it here, https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/sherdog-movie-club-week-53-discussion-mulholland-drive.3523711/
 
Mulholland Drive is the best thing Lynch ever made and quite frankly is one of the best films of the last 20 years. I'll stick by that statement. SMC had a pretty good discussion about it here, https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/sherdog-movie-club-week-53-discussion-mulholland-drive.3523711/

That and Lost Highway are Lynch at his best for me, there almost mirror images of each other from a female and male perspective. I think that's the point were Lynch put the individual style he created with stuff like Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart to the best use telling a story with the most dramatic impact.
 
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I just finished re-watching Jan Troell's 1971 masterpiece The Emigrants. Upon watching it again I think it might be my favorite film ever. I just had to order the Criterion Collection bundle that includes the equally magnificent sequel The New Land. These films are rather long and slow so they might not be for everyone. It tells an authentic and gripping story of 19th century migration to America from Europe told through the eyes of a group of poor Swedish peasants. The acting, the attention to details, historical accuracy, cinematography and scale is simply amazing. It might feel slow at times for some, but to me nearly every scene grips me and is fascinating in the way it makes you feel as if you are there to truly experience a real time and place that is long gone today. I truly recommend this sadly much forgotten gem.
Here's a trailer of sorts: https://www.criterionchannel.com/trailers-1/videos/the-emigrants-trailer
 
I just finished re-watching Jan Troell's 1971 masterpiece The Emigrants. Upon watching it again I think it might be my favorite film ever. I just had to order the Criterion Collection bundle that includes the equally magnificent sequel The New Land. These films are rather long and slow so they might not be for everyone. It tells an authentic and gripping story of 19th century migration to America from Europe told through the eyes of a group of poor Swedish peasants. The acting, the attention to details, historical accuracy, cinematography and scale is simply amazing. It might feel slow at times for some, but to me nearly every scene grips me and is fascinating in the way it makes you feel as if you are there to truly experience a real time and place that is long gone today. I truly recommend this sadly much forgotten gem.
Here's a trailer of sorts: https://www.criterionchannel.com/trailers-1/videos/the-emigrants-trailer

One of the regulars in here posted about them after he watched them relatively recently.

Just finished

The Emigrants (1971)
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An absolutely beautiful film! Set in 1844 it concerns a young family (the Larsens, played by Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman), their toils and troubles at home in the Swedish countryside and, eventually, their bold decision to sail to America in an attempt to build a new life in Minnesota.

At over three hours long it's certainly not a brisk film, and in fact it is only one half of the story. A sequel of similar length entitled The New Land was released a year later and the director (Jan Troell) considers them to be one long story. I'll watch the sequel tomorrow. In any case, the film moves at a steady pace; Troell doesn't seem to be in any hurry to tell the story, but it is not boring either. We see the harsh life of the Larsen family. Despite their hard work they struggle to get by on their poor, rocky farmland. Along with a few other events which I won't spoil, it is this which motivates them to brave the sea-journey to America in search of greener pastures - rumours abound that America is a land of milk and honey. On the boat they are accompanied by other peasants, as well as religious dissidents forced to flee persecution of the Swedish establishment.

The film subtly details the lives of the Larsens with a vivid realism that conveys their struggle. But at the same time it's not some hopelessly bleak film. In this respect it really reminded me of one of my favourite films from a few years later, The Tree of Wooden Clogs. You feel the dignity of the Swedish peasants and their work, the importance of their hopes (the thing which drives them to America in the first place), as well as the importance of religion for many of them. There is death, illness, and suffering along the way to Minnesota, but by the time they get there you really feel a sense of the families joy at having finally arrived. It is an profoundly moving film, with some beautiful visuals to accompany the wonderful story.

Finally got round to watching the second half of The Emigrants, ie.

The New Land (1972)

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Really should have watched them back to back like I intended to, or at least a day apart, because in a sense they are clearly meant to comprise a single 6+ hours film. As it stands they are pretty long at over 3 hours each anyway. In this film Jan Troell picks up exactly where The Emigrants left of, as if he had just cut to the next scene; initially the story is told in much the same style and we follow the journey of the Nilsson family (Karl-Oskar, his young wife Kristina and their children) and their attempts to settle in America with the same kind of poetic realism as the first film. The first hour or so continues like this. However, as the film goes on and the emigrants (the other Swedish families, as well as Karl-Oskar's younger brother) begin to spread themselves across the vastness of this new world, the narrative structure itself begins to fracture. In general the story becomes more up-tempo and time passes more quickly than in the first film. The Larsson family and their farm is always the focus, but when the younger brother and his friend travel to California in search of gold the narrative scope becomes more expansive in order to include this wild west frontier. Having just arrived in America the brother still thinks that if he keeps pushing West he will find riches. For these sections the cinematography and editing-style becomes more experimental, almost jagged and disorientating in order to reflect those different experiences. Especially because it's supposed to be flashbacks.

As I say, the narrative is largely focused on the internal dynamics of this particular family. But in a broader sense it is the story of all emigrants to America, in terms of the hopes and aspirations that led them to leave their homelands behind, the difficulties they faced once they arrived, the nostalgic yearning longing for home vs. pioneering spirit and so on. This plays out within the family itself and the different characters of Karl-Oskar and Kristina, but it is extends beyond them. There is also an attempt in this "half" of the film to situate all of this within the wider historical situation of the Native Americans. Mostly there isn't much explicit (at first), but they appear very early on as a force lurking in the background. Kristina has some sort of paranoid fever dream about being attacked, though there is also a scene in which he provides some native women with food. This is very much the tension which is at play here and later in the film this comes more into focus with the events of the Sioux Outbreak of 1862 which occurred in that region at the time the film is set. There is one scene - involving a foetus - which is, shall we say, a bit excessive and distasteful.....but despite that I think there is actually a lot of sympathy shown towards the native.

All in all, another fantastic film. I don't think it's quite as good as the first, or if we consider them as one 7 hour film then the final quarter is a tad more uneven than the first 3. But really a fantastic pair of films/historical epic. In many ways reminds me of another lengthy epic from the 70s The Tree of Wooden Clogs.
 
How about that! Good read.

Turner Classic Movies all this month has been doing their "Summer Under the Stars" programming in which all August every 24-hour day of programming is devoted to the films of a single star. At some point recently, it was Liv Ullmann day and I saw that they were showing those, and while I would've liked to have rewatched them, especially after Rimbaud made those posts, I knew that I wouldn't have the time for them for a while, so I skipped DVRing them. I would like to eventually see them again, though, as I don't remember them very well at this point.

I watched these a long time ago, back during my Bergman obsession which created a net of movie watching in which these non-Bergman pairings of von Sydow and Ullmann got caught, so I don't remember much in the way of details, but I remember, perhaps due to an American bias, enjoying The New Land more, particularly for the Sioux stuff and the tonal combination of wistfulness and promise.

I honestly hadn't even thought about these movies in forever, but reading your post and then reading both films' Wikis makes me want to spend 7 hours watching them again :D
 
Turner Classic Movies all this month has been doing their "Summer Under the Stars" programming in which all August every 24-hour day of programming is devoted to the films of a single star. At some point recently, it was Liv Ullmann day and I saw that they were showing those, and while I would've liked to have rewatched them, especially after Rimbaud made those posts, I knew that I wouldn't have the time for them for a while, so I skipped DVRing them. I would like to eventually see them again, though, as I don't remember them very well at this point.

You sould definitely rewatch them at some point, I'd recommend the Criterion release specifically since it's got English subtitles. Before that release I believe there was only a shortened TV version made for English speaking audiences that was dubbed in English. Both Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow gives such a terrific performance in this film that to dub over their voices ought to be criminal.
 
Why? You think I'm harsh and critical or something?
Just that from what I recall you're not overly fond of Ozu.
I know you're a Lynch guy - and @MusterX, this is relevant to you, too, so I'm calling you into the SMD from the SMC - so I'll mention that tonight officially ends my little Lynchathon. I rewatched Eraserhead for the first time since I saw it in film school nearly ten years ago, I watched The Elephant Man and The Straight Story both for the first time, I rewatched Blue Velvet a couple of nights ago, I rewatched Lost Highway last night, and as soon as I submit this post I'm hitting play on Mulholland Drive.

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I love that gif. Loved that whole series of Louie episodes.

"If someone in the business tells you something and says it's a secret, that secret is a lie."

Definitely curious to hear your thoughts on Eraserhead, Elephant Man, and Straight Story. Did you decide to forgo Inland Empire?

I was going to say something about this when you mentioned bowing out on the new Twin Peaks, the episode that I thought you would like was the one that made you give up after the first scene haha. I think you stopped before it got to the really good parts, but now I'm not so certain you would agree that they are the good parts.
 
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A great documentary called "American Factory" it caught my eyes because I read about this factory in the news, a role reversal of sort, Chinese company opening plant in America.

I don't know how they get the amount of access they did, but they manage to get a lot of behind the scene stuff including company meetings. The stuff shared between the Chinese and the Americans are very revealing about the working culture.



As someone who has experience working East and West, I can be empathetic to both side of the conflict and made this documentary more compelling to me.
 
Watched Black Hawk Down for the second time recently. I had very little recollection of it from when I'd see it in 2002 with some friends, shortly after it came out on DVD. Probably just was a bit tired the night we watched.

I definitely think it is one of the best films of that genre that I've seen. The sheer intensity, the focus on the professionalism and bravery of the Rangers and Delta Force personnel, and the overall technical achievement or Scott and his crew were tremendous.

I was also impressed with the cast across the board. For a film with very little in the way of character development, the actors did a terrific job of showcasing both the dire scenario in the Battle of Mogadishu, as well as the camaraderie and dedication to one another as they tried to survive. In that way, I thought the film was better than Saving Private Ryan, which, I believe, has more character scenes, but relies too often on painting with broad strokes and cliches/contrivances for those characters. Both are technically great films, I just think I was drawn more into Black Hawk Down. I found myself compelled by all the different converging threads- Bremmer and his cohort realizing they'd missed the convoy and having to go alone on foot to the crash site, Hartnett and co. establishing the perimeter around the crash site and trying to maintain a temporary safe haven for the American servicemen, Fichtner and McGregor's trek to the crash site, Bana's continued steely resolve in going to different areas as the need arose, Sizemore and co's hellacious ride on the convoy through the market streets in an attempt to get to the survivors of the crash site, and, perhaps most disturbingly, the re-enactment of Shugart's and Gordon's act of valor at the second crash site.

Really enjoyed the film and was surprised how little of it I remembered. Definitely recommend it.
 
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Got around to watching argentine film Zama from 2017 that was mentioned awhile ago here.

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Mines a similar kind of territory to Aguirre: Wrath of God in terms of casting south American imperialism as an absurdist mismatch of cultures. Its more low key that film taking place in a small(17th century?) town on the rio del plata river with the local magistrates life slowly unravelling. That in itself I'd have no problem with but I admit the film as a whole was a bit of a disappointment after reading so much positive about it. It seems to follow the subset of quite a lot of recent highly praised arthouse(another recent viewing, Let the Sunshine In for example) for me in seeming to be afraid to really commit to any element strongly, well made but I didn't really find it that impactful either dramatically or in terms of being truly strange/eye catching.
 
Watched Black Hawk Down for the second time recently. I had very little recollection of it from when I'd see it in 2002 with some friends, shortly after it came out on DVD. Probably just was a bit tired the night we watched.

I definitely think it is one of the best films of that genre that I've seen. The sheer intensity, the focus on the professionalism and bravery of the Rangers and Delta Force personnel, and the overall technical achievement or Scott and his crew were tremendous.

I was also impressed with the cast across the board. For a film with very little in the way of character development, the actors did a terrific job of showcasing both the dire scenario in the Battle of Mogadishu, as well as the camaraderie and dedication to one another as they tried to survive. In that way, I thought the film was better than Saving Private Ryan, which, I believe, has more character scenes, but relies too often on painting with broad strokes and cliches/contrivances for those characters. Both are technically great films, I just think I was drawn more into Black Hawk Down. I found myself compelled by all the different converging threads- Bremmer and his cohort realizing they'd missed the convoy and having to go alone on foot to the crash site, Hartnett and co. establishing the perimeter around the crash site and trying to maintain a temporary safe haven for the American servicemen, Fichtner and McGregor's trek to the crash site, Bana's continued steely resolve in going to different areas as the need arose, Sizemore and co's hellacious ride on the convoy through the market streets in an attempt to get to the survivors of the crash site, and, perhaps most disturbingly, the re-enactment of Shugart's and Gordon's act of valor at the second crash site.

Really enjoyed the film and was surprised how little of it I remembered. Definitely recommend it.


It's ridiculous how many future stars have supporting roles in that Film.
 
I was catching Experiment in Terror last week.
Immediately turned into one of my GOAT Thrillers.

Starts amazing with Lynch coming out of the shadow to threaten Lee Remick.
Ends amazing with the Finale at the SF Giants stadium.

Probably the closest they came back then to a psychological profile study of a criminal.
 
Last night I finally got around to

High Life (2018)

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Had meant to watch this in the cinema but never got the chance. It's a philosophical science-fiction (with some elements of thriller) about a group of convicts who are sent on a one-way mission to reach a black hole, taking part in various scientific experiments along the way (to do with the possibility of giving birth in space). The film explores the human condition, taking an existential look at scientific progress. This is a general, over-arching theme obviously; these are human beings hurtling through the vast immensity of space towards a black hole. Of course this is a theme that will be raised. But more specifically, these are convicts and human guinea pigs. Their tiny space ship is, even in it's appearance, more like a prison than some sleek Space X concept. Trapped together Denis looks at the psychological impact of such a setting - the tensions, feelings of confinement and hopelessness and so on. Where it differs from many other films in this genre is the immense emphasis on reproduction. It's like Solaris, with a lot of sex...

But seriously, the Tarkovsky influence is clearly huge here, and for obvious reasons Solaris in particular. Like Tarkovsky, Denis isn't much interested in attempting to portray futuristic technology or large amounts of technobabble but rather the human element of scientific progress. The space ship is shabby and lived in, not sleek and modern, and in this respect definitely put me in mind of the ship from solaris. Rather than touch screens we get a computer that looks closer to something from the original Alien.

Don't wanna discuss too much of the film though, in case I go into spoiler territory. All in all, I found it be equal parts fascinating, erotic and unsettling; at times tedious and frustrating, but on the whole a film worth watching if you are interested in this kind of sci fi. The ending is ambiguous, but I liked it a lot.
 
@HenryFlower @europe1 @Tycho Brah @Rimbaud82 @chickenluver @moreorless87

So Henry reminded me in the SMC that I never got around to posting my syllabi for the two film classes that I'm teaching this term. In case you guys are interested, here's what I'm doing.

First, I'm teaching a class at Columbia College Chicago (where I did my undergrad - it's a great film school and it's where I've always wanted to at least start teaching if not where I end up teaching permanently, though that'd be a sweet gig). It's one of the core film studies classes called Cinema Analysis and Criticism. It's a writing and research intensive class that film students take after they've already taken a couple of film classes. The structure of the course is as follows: There are three units over the course of the 15-week term. Unit 1 is aesthetic analysis, Unit 2 is ideological analysis, and Unit 3 is historical research. The structure remains the same, but each professor gets to pick which movies to screen and have the students write essays about each unit. For my choices, I'm having them watch and do an aesthetic analysis of Taxi Driver in Unit 1, watch and do an ideological analysis of The Fountainhead for Unit 2, and watch and write a research paper on The Dark Knight Rises for Unit 3. I fucking love the students in the class and the idea/structure of the class is awesome. If I could just teach four or five units of this exact class each term, I'd be a happy professor.

Second, I'm teaching a class at DePaul University. Technically, I'm at another campus, but it's a DePaul class and it's part of their History of Cinema core. The way DePaul does it, there are three History of Cinema classes: The first is 1895-1945, the second is 1945-1975, and the third is 1975-today. I'm teaching 1945-1975. This isn't a film school class, so the students are mostly advertising/marketing students with a few general "media studies" undergrads thrown in and one kid who wants to be a filmmaker. I'm going to be honest, I'm not all that excited about this class, mainly because teaching film students is so much more fun and rewarding than random kids who don't really know or care that much about movies just looking to take a gen ed class, but still, I get to talk about movies, so I'm not complaining. For this class, I'm going to have the students write a midterm paper and a final paper and then have them keep film journals for each weekly screening. As for the screenings, this is how I've broken the 10-week quarter down week-by-week:

Unit 1: American Cinema in the 1940s - The Best Years of Our Lives (I wanted for sure to have them watch a movie that dealt with WWII, but I also want to emphasize the "classical Hollywood" style, and it's hard to find a better showcase than a William Wyler movie)

Unit 2: Italian Neorealism - I Vitelloni (Neorealism was a must, but while I do like many of the obvious exemplars like Open City and Bicycle Thieves, I figured I could talk about those while having them watch I Vitelloni, which, though a late example, is IMO the best Neorealist film and massively influential despite being pretty damn underrated)

Unit 3: American Cinema in the 1950s - On the Waterfront (I wanted to emphasize the Method Acting boom with Brando, Clift, and Dean, plus On the Waterfront will allow me to talk about the blacklist and what was going on in and around Hollywood at the time)

Unit 4: Postwar Japanese Cinema - The Burmese Harp (Similar to the Neorealism week, while I could've gone the obvious route and had them watch a Kurosawa or Ozu movie, I figured I could talk about them while having them watch the supremely underrated Kon Ichikawa's supremely underrated antiwar film The Burmese Harp, plus it's an opportunity to compare-and-contrast how different national cinemas dealt with the same event, viz. WWII, from different perspectives)

Unit 5: Ingmar Bergman: Authorship and the Arthouse - Through a Glass Darkly (Honestly, this week is here to justify my purchase of the Ingmar Bergman's Cinema collection from Criterion and to give me an excuse to spend a week talking about Bergman movies)

Unit 6: French New Wave - Last Year at Marienbad (Shout-out to Henry, I'm once again eschewing the obvious in Truffaut and Godard and will focus instead on Monsieur Left Bank, Alain Resnais, and maybe use the day as a fun day right after they turn in their midterm papers to put the students into teams to debate what's happening in various scenes :D)

Unit 7: American Cinema in the 1960s - Midnight Cowboy (The Graduate is too obvious and I hate Bonnie and Clyde, so the best candidate to talk about American cinema in the '60s was obviously Midnight Cowboy. Plus, it'll allow me to tie together the rise of the arthouse and cinematic modernism and show its influence on post-classical Hollywood)

Unit 8: Britain on the Brink - Get Carter (Your eyes do not deceive you, europe: I'm going to do a week on British cinema and I'm going to focus on the '60s/'70s leading them up to the non-Stallone original ;))

Unit 9: Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema - Fist of Fury (No one is surprised that I shoved in a Bruce Lee week, right?)

Unit 10: American Cinema in the 1970s - The Getaway (I wanted to end with an introduction to the burgeoning American action film, and since I'm past 1968 and thus can't use Bullitt, I'm using the next best thing and still managing to end with a Lee/McQueen one-two punch :cool:)

Finally, speaking of the American action film, I already know that in January I'm going to be teaching an additional two classes at DePaul. One is a very general "Media and Cultural Studies" class (doing it for the money, though it'll still be fun, as I'll be able to talk about movies, TV, and stand-up, all of which I love) and the other is a class that I was allowed to design myself. It's a film elective under the "Topics in Film Genre" umbrella, and it's going to be called "The Hollywood Action Film." Here's how that one's going to go down:

Unit 1: Chase Films, Swashbucklers, and Slapstick - Instead of a single film screening, on this intro week I'm just going to show them a lot of clips of early chase films, some Douglas Fairbanks stuff, and then the Clown Trio of Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd.

Unit 2: Fighting Crime - G-Men (It is my position that the first "official" Hollywood action film was G-Men and the first "official" Hollywood action and martial arts star was James Cagney, so how better to officially kick off the class?).

Unit 3: Superwesterns - Shane (Rejoice once again, europe: I think that old school gangster movies and Westerns are prerequisites to contemporary action movies, so we've got to cover those bases early).

Unit 4: A New Era - Bullitt (Dirty Harry gets all the attention, but the new school action movie begins with Bullitt, and my students are going to learn that).

Unit 5: Martial Arts Spectacular - Enter the Dragon (Um...duh).

Unit 6: Righting Wrongs - Rambo: First Blood Part II (I wanted to do a right-wing action and left-wing action double-header, and the obvious right-wing pick was the movie that set '80s US politics on fire).

Unit 7: Liberal Action - On Deadly Ground (The obvious left-wing pick, meanwhile, is, of course, the Sensei's passion project).

Unit 8: Gender in Action - Kill Bill (I had to show the ladies some love, and if I'm going to talk about gender, why not give The Bride the floor? I was originally thinking about using Haywire, but I think that there's more to talk about with Kill Bill, especially with how Tarantino connects The Bride to the Come Drink with Me/Lady Snowblood lineage of action heroines).

Unit 9: Race in Action - Black Panther (Can't leave the race card in the deck after pulling the gender card. While I was originally thinking of doing the race unit on Action Jackson, once again, I think that Black Panther would provide more to talk about, especially inasmuch as it opens the door to superhero movies in general, about which I'll have very little to say in the course on the whole).

Unit 10: Pasts and Futures - Rambo: Last Blood (This is kind of contingent on Stallone not stinking up the joint with this one, but I'd really love to be able to take the class from the birth of cinema to a movie that may well still be in theaters during the class. Plus, the ability to connect back to the previous week with Rambo II would be very cool).

So, in short:

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I Vitelloni is really good. I haven't seen much Italian Neorealism, but I would put I Vitelloni above Open City and bicycle Thieves as well. Maybe the most enjoyable Fellini movie I've seen as well.
 
The Burmese Harp is such a great film

Sounds like a fascinating course Bullitt! Living that academic dream
 
Mandy was fucking great.

I'm happy that Linus Roache finally gets a chance to shine after years of being a complimentary actor.
That Nic Cage Bathroom scene.......... <Moyes5>


And i just love how the whole thing is like a bad acid trip.
 
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