Seen any good movies lately? - Films you MUST see
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Just got through with Don Delillo's Running Dog. It might be interesting for you to read this book immeadiately following viewing "Hitler footage." Delillo was definetly after getting the movement of cinema into this book.
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mjp
Founding member
Rude Boy, the Clash movie from 1980. Haven't seen it since '80 probably, and forgot what a horrible movie it was, but haven't forgotten how great the Clash could be. And there's a lot of great Clash performances here. Also a "Just play the Clash" option that edits out all the troublesome bits that are supposed to form the plot of the thing.
mjp
Founding member
Yeah, a nice production. The film looks great and the extras are pretty good.
jerzy ,
thanks for the delillo idea. ill look into it. i dont read much modern fiction. i dont read much fiction. as a matter of fact most writing that has come out in the last 20 years pretty much doesnt work for me at all. maybe i sound like bukowski here - i dont care. fiction is often too transparent. like you can tell the writer is jsut making it all up. that annoys the fucking hell out of me. give me knutson, celine, jeffers, bukowski, john berryman, hart crane, paul celan, trakl, hemingway, walt whitman, emily dickenson, james wright - i mean, just give me good writers writing about life the way it unfolds. most "fiction" seems to be about making money - not really going out on a limb and giving us a good story that is a story in and of itself. pure in the cold light of day.
thanks , paul
thanks for the delillo idea. ill look into it. i dont read much modern fiction. i dont read much fiction. as a matter of fact most writing that has come out in the last 20 years pretty much doesnt work for me at all. maybe i sound like bukowski here - i dont care. fiction is often too transparent. like you can tell the writer is jsut making it all up. that annoys the fucking hell out of me. give me knutson, celine, jeffers, bukowski, john berryman, hart crane, paul celan, trakl, hemingway, walt whitman, emily dickenson, james wright - i mean, just give me good writers writing about life the way it unfolds. most "fiction" seems to be about making money - not really going out on a limb and giving us a good story that is a story in and of itself. pure in the cold light of day.
thanks , paul
I'm with you on that Paul.
I've had friends try to get me to read Pynchon, Barth, Barthelme, Paluchnik, Eggers, etc., and I've tried a bit; none of it, none of it, stacks up to the Titans.
And the 19th century Russians: will there ever be Men that can write like that again?
But I do own an iPod and sometimes I forsake my bicycle and use the Metro. This is why I pick up a Delillo novel every now and again.
(William T. Vollmann, however, is a different story. A Titan does walk among us)
I feel the same about movies. The French New Wave is about as good as it gets for me. Also some of those Germans really new how to shape the art of cinema.... Chaplain, Buster Keaton, Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, The Great Robert Bresson.... America Cinema in the 70's before pre-Jaws, pre-Star Wars. Movies now mostly suck. Even the trite passing itself off as independent and alternative...
I've had friends try to get me to read Pynchon, Barth, Barthelme, Paluchnik, Eggers, etc., and I've tried a bit; none of it, none of it, stacks up to the Titans.
And the 19th century Russians: will there ever be Men that can write like that again?
But I do own an iPod and sometimes I forsake my bicycle and use the Metro. This is why I pick up a Delillo novel every now and again.
(William T. Vollmann, however, is a different story. A Titan does walk among us)
I feel the same about movies. The French New Wave is about as good as it gets for me. Also some of those Germans really new how to shape the art of cinema.... Chaplain, Buster Keaton, Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, The Great Robert Bresson.... America Cinema in the 70's before pre-Jaws, pre-Star Wars. Movies now mostly suck. Even the trite passing itself off as independent and alternative...
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jerzy ,
film is dead. everything looks the same now. everything is the same. no, to semi-quote bukowski, gambling. at least in america. but even the other countries are starting to follow america now. weak happy bullshit. or standard depressing bland and so on. jaws ruined evrything. that mind-set. that is the dividing line. cgi effects lack the human element. humanity is on the back-burner. where is the new bresson? fritz lang? everyone is running around with video cameras and calling it film.
do i sound bitter? ah ,
seek out the old. . .
love, paul
film is dead. everything looks the same now. everything is the same. no, to semi-quote bukowski, gambling. at least in america. but even the other countries are starting to follow america now. weak happy bullshit. or standard depressing bland and so on. jaws ruined evrything. that mind-set. that is the dividing line. cgi effects lack the human element. humanity is on the back-burner. where is the new bresson? fritz lang? everyone is running around with video cameras and calling it film.
do i sound bitter? ah ,
seek out the old. . .
love, paul
I wish I knew the term for it, but I loathe beyond words the lighting style in movies like Sparta. I guess it's the new style that's supposed to draw your attention away from how poor the movie is. I seem to be only one of two people I know personally that thinks Sparta looks like a piece of fancy, B-grade trash.
HenryChinaski
Founding member
Hannibal Rising was better than i expected. I say "go watch it!"
actually, it was amazing.
actually, it was amazing.
ninjerk ,
whatever has decided to make movies now has decided that they need to look abosolutely cold and perfect and completely composed and the sound must be loud and every little rustle in someones pants pocket must be audible. the story is nothing. computers write the stories. people, i am convinced, cannot (i hope for all our sakes) be this soulless. there is no depth of field, no mystery, no shadowy distance to become lost inside of - only rancid plot twists and commecial endorsements - see, the actor drinks a miller lite. oh my. please, everyone, stop going to the movies. go rent or buy or whatever - seek the historical cinema. there is so much you wont ever be able to get through it in 10 lifetimes. and it is good stuff. screw the present.
paul "bring me the head of alfredo garcia" b.
whatever has decided to make movies now has decided that they need to look abosolutely cold and perfect and completely composed and the sound must be loud and every little rustle in someones pants pocket must be audible. the story is nothing. computers write the stories. people, i am convinced, cannot (i hope for all our sakes) be this soulless. there is no depth of field, no mystery, no shadowy distance to become lost inside of - only rancid plot twists and commecial endorsements - see, the actor drinks a miller lite. oh my. please, everyone, stop going to the movies. go rent or buy or whatever - seek the historical cinema. there is so much you wont ever be able to get through it in 10 lifetimes. and it is good stuff. screw the present.
paul "bring me the head of alfredo garcia" b.
"Baby Snakes" is lovely for Zappa fans, non-Zappa fans have a lot of trouble with it. A great film, you really miss him, even after watching him for 2 and half hours. I caught "Elmer Gantry" last Sunday, a great subversive, almost surreal film. Very funny.
HenryChinaski
Founding member
indeed. zappa was a musical genius.
Awwww, now what do ya mean by that?
"It's essence?":eek:
Is "the essence" of the printed word something deep and meaningful?
Where do all the crappy suck-wind-thru-a-straw books come from then - hard work?
Come on now!
When "the essence" wanes the form appears.
HenryChinaski
Founding member
I agree, but it's an odd occurrence when you get a good book and a good movie.
This happened with Palahniuk's Fight Club
This happened with Palahniuk's Fight Club
yes you're right.
a friend of mine who owns a video store does "dream casting"; taking films and putting his fantasy cast/crew to it. his choice for "under the volcano" was Richard Burton, directed by Sam Peckinpah. interesting, but with the amount of drinking those two could do, I don't know if the film ever would've made it past the first shot.
though, Bogart and Huston got "the african queen" done. so go figure.
a friend of mine who owns a video store does "dream casting"; taking films and putting his fantasy cast/crew to it. his choice for "under the volcano" was Richard Burton, directed by Sam Peckinpah. interesting, but with the amount of drinking those two could do, I don't know if the film ever would've made it past the first shot.
though, Bogart and Huston got "the african queen" done. so go figure.
perfect.
Damn, no idea what any of this means, but I like the way you say it...
And I agree.
Just finished watching INFAMOUS, the 2006, and second biopic in two years, of Capote's IN COLD BLOOD.
Think I enjoyed it more than CAPOTE, but that just might be my knee-jerk petulance rearing.
Really liked the way this one developed the love connection between Capote and Smith. It may well have been fictionalized a bit (or a lot), but considering some of the criticisms regarding Capote doing just such with the story, it seems rather poetic.
The direction this thread has taken with the chatter about Fight Club and Sam Peckinpah I for one find pretty interesting. Peckinpah seemed pretty tuned into violence, even his own. Not only is this apparent in his westerns (which - much like the work of Buk - have their real meanings glossed over in favour of the tempting thrill of the myth), but maybe even moreso in his Straw Dogs. I would have loved to see what Peckinpah would have done with Fight Club.
If you like Fight Club give Staw Dogs a shot. In my opinion a much better social commentary on the unrecognized but inevitable violence which seems more and more to be defining masculinity.
If you like Fight Club give Staw Dogs a shot. In my opinion a much better social commentary on the unrecognized but inevitable violence which seems more and more to be defining masculinity.
I second that.
yes, indeed. sam, i believe, was one of the best filmmakers america has ever produced. even his last films - osterman weekend and the killer elite are better than the stuff propped up and pooped out today. sam lived in the moment. his characters lived there also. every second of his greatest films seems as if it were being transcribed from some dream - or nightmare (the same?). sam perfected the the western with the wild bunch - then reconfigured it with alfredo garcia, a semi-poetic-autobiography. i think of him kind of in the same way i think of sam - wonderers on the frontier - a dying west inside their heads - trying to translate their gut reactions as the red sun bleeds its way to night.
or something like that. (oh yes - straw dogs is a kind of savage treatise on the subject of violence - relentless. . .)
paul
or something like that. (oh yes - straw dogs is a kind of savage treatise on the subject of violence - relentless. . .)
paul
Christ, I should be banned from any further movie talk for using this phrase in reference to Peckinpah's Staw Dogs! I retarct that "social commentary" shit... It's more like an explosion in the face of our deepest unknown fear of who we are, what we are capable of. It offers no answers, only more questions.
Now I'm gonna have to watch it again. Yet the movie is so hard to find! Some critics say its unpopularity has to do with the wife seeming to enjoy being raped. I think Peckinpah goes even further: we aren't sure what she's really feeling. That's the mystery that's still banned on the english tele to this day. While we're at we should ban all mystery!!!!!
Also will be looking for "Bring me the head...." I've known about it for awhile but have never seen it.
I think the best movie of 2006 was Tommy Lee Jones' "The three burials of Melquiades Estrada" This is the closest film has come to the spirit of Cormac McArthy's earlier novels, especially Blood Meridian.
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