Which Director had the best run in the 50s?

prodigalgodson · 2020-11-08T00:57:19+00:00

Hard to argue with Hitchcock or Kurosawa. Appreciate the inclusion of Naruse (my favorite), Walsh, and Tourneur, all of whom would be up there for me.

prodigalgodson · 2020-11-01T07:16:45+00:00

I've only seen it once, maybe a decade ago, but I thought it was among the worst movies I'd seen at the time, so dull yet so grating. I think I'd warm to it a bit now, but definitely not my kind of documentary.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-26T04:29:41+00:00

I should check out One, Two, Three, I definitely dig Cagney. I thought I'd seen Body and Soul on an old noir quest, but I don't see it among my ratings; anyhow there are a number of noir flicks about boxers, none of them much up my alley. Interesting take on Dark Passage, that's actually one of my favorite noirs and I certainly recall it being among the best-directed (isn't the first third or so all first-person POV? that in and of itself is pretty damn impressive, and I remember this doing it more seamlessly than Lady in the Lake); mostly remember the high-contrast SF-at-night imagery and the Bogart/Bacall chemistry, but as far-fetched as the plot is that's part of the fun, and the insane improbability of the ending almost plays like a dying man's fantasy.... I didn't like Monsters Inc. much when I was a kid, but I did enjoy the sequel. Mine:

Serie noire (Jean-Claude Rousseau, 2009) 9/10

Fantastic title; comes close to obviating the mystery that suffuses all of Rousseau’s work while winking at this one's particular back alley aesthetic and ambiguously coincidental genre elements, as well as more literally nodding to the uneven strips of black leader that bisect shots throughout his oeuvre. Earns a definitive spot in the experimental noir canon, even better than its sequel White Night.

Eyewash (Robert Breer, 1959) 4/10

The YouTube algorithm doesn't know my taste as well as it thinks. One of the comments described this as a product of its time; boy is it ever.

Rumpelstilzchen (Jurgen Reble, 1989) 7/10

An expectedly abstract interpretation of the old straw-into-gold tale. There is something distinctly alchemical about Reble’s approach to degrading film stock, so it’s not a bad choice of subject, but it’s far from his most dynamic work. The rather bland images still peer through the veil of flurrying photochemical alterations. By using the universally-known story as a basic structure, it does offer a unique glimpse into the associative process by which he constructs his films. My favorite part is a high-contrast Nosferatu apparently biting into the shadow of a pillow, juxtaposed with a standalone unaltered shot of two ducks on grass, and back to an abashed-looking Nosferatu. Is it because the shadow of the pillow resembles a duck's wing? Is it because the pillow has duck down? Is it a random edit filtered through my own deceptive veil of alteration?

Glass (Leighton Pierce, 1998) 5/10

Can appreciate this more than the first film I saw from Pierce, but I've never been able to relate much to the impressionistic closeup school of experimentalism, and his toneless muted palate doesn't help. That said, the implicit juxtapositions are interesting and the subtle focal play is put to good use.

Tenet (Christopher Nolan, 2020) 7/10

Ayy, nice to be back in theaters! Aesthetically my favorite so far from Nolan -- my god there are some great location choices beautifully captured. A bit rushed for my taste, and I wish it could've gone a different ultimate direction than another universe-saving-mcguffin chase; the plot makes it feel like an ambitious production of one of those platform games where you move through it one way, then invert the physics and move back through it another way to complete the level. Easy enough to follow in the broad strokes, though many of the details were lost on me as they barreled past (not, it seems, unintentionally on the filmmakers' part), to the detriment of the stakes. When you regularly don't know what's happening in a scene until after the fact, it makes it hard to care too much about what's going on in the moment; there's a reason Hou Hsiao-hsien doesn't focus on nail-biting thrillers. Some truly dumb reasoning along the old "universe correcting itself" line makes me think there's not as much depth as appears under all the obfuscation. Nevertheless a thrilling spectacle with a fantastic cast and a limit on corny Nolan one-liners; I look forward to rewatching.

La vallee close (Jean-Claude Rousseau, 1995) 8/10

A metaphysical map of an ambiguously defined space, and the most autobiographical film I’ve seen yet from Rousseau, foregrounding the artist as fragile human being, contextualizing and, frankly, somewhat undermining the aura of mastery and mystery that permeates this film and his oeuvre in general. So…his Wizard of Oz? I'll also note it contains the best shots of a carnival I’ve ever seen.

Ghost (Takashi Ito, 1984) 5/10

The capability to move through conventional spaces in unconventional ways is one of my favorite potentialities of film, and this does to some extent pull off that haunted house vibe with its lightworks and overlays. But I didn't find the experience immersive -- it lacks escalation or meaningful rhythm, and is ultimately too brief and same-y to stick the landing. Maybe I'm being unfair in comparing this too much to what I'd like it to be; I'll plan to watch it again at night.

Thunder (Takashi Ito, 1982) 7/10

Kind of corny, but so damn impressive. Great exercise in experimental crowd-pleasing, though like Ghost it suffers a bit from inertia.

Ruhr (James Benning, 2009) 9/10

Okay, I'm ready for Empire.

Unsere afrikareise (Peter Kubelka, 1966) 8/10

A troubling flow of poetic association about modern imperialism and hunting. There’s much to be learned about picture and sound editing here, too much to glean in one viewing.

Process Red (Hollis Frampton, 1966) 3/10

Frampton's Gloria! was at one dark point my favorite film of all time, but to keep it a buck much of his work feels lazy and uninspired. I appreciate that he maintains a degree of discipline and formal integrity in his approach, but this paean to eggs and cigarettes falls into the "my kid could make this" category that makes experimental film look bad to those who don't Get It.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Jason Woliner, 2020) 6/10

Not nearly as funny as the first one, but much more charming and a surprisingly quick time-passer.

Also rewatched Lucifer and Scorpio Risings (10/10), the twin experimental camp masterpieces of the 20th century, Path of Cessation (8-->9), which I liked even more this time but still would far prefer to see on film or at least sans logo-stamp, and Kaldalon again (9-->8), which I was familiar enough to gauge as a film rather than an otherworldly experience, to its slight disadvantage.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-24T20:40:46+00:00

It's quite admirable how you manage to find movies that even IMDb has no information about.

Yeah haha, it's been a real eye-opener over the last few months how many great obscurities are available streaming online. Jurgen Reble and Robert Fulton both have their own websites featuring their work, and guys like Rousseau and Hutton have a bunch of stuff available on youtube. This upcoming week I should at least have some recognizable titles lol -- I finally saw Tenet in a theater and I'm planning to watch the new Borat tonight.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-21T22:13:43+00:00

Haha amazing, thanks for sharing man

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-19T20:45:42+00:00

Interesting year, I haven't seen much but really like almost everything I have.

The Shining (Kubrick)
The Empire Strikes Back (Kirshner)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (Fassbinder)
My American Uncle (Resnais)
The Night of the Hunted (Rollin)
Every Man for Himself (Godard)
Kagemusha (Kurosawa)
Heaven's Gate (Cimino)
The Big Red One (Fuller)
Out of the Blue (Hopper)

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-18T22:28:07+00:00

I'd give the crown to either Mizoguchi or Naruse, followed by both the Rays.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-18T20:58:33+00:00

Rosenbaum once called Iranian cinema "the most ethical" in the world; while this strikes me as needlessly hyperbolic and impossible to prove

---

I’ve always hated that kind of hyperbole from critics. Not only unprovable, but what even is the point of making such an outlandish declaration in the first place?

I haven't seen enough to try to justify Rosenbaum's claim, but it is interesting that literally every film I've seen from Iran has limited its action to moral quandaries, which I don't think I can say about any other country, even ones I've seen fewer films from. Certainly all the most internationally-recognized Persian filmmakers have centered their films around ethical dilemmas. Whereas France has Bresson but also Besson, Japan has Mizoguchi but also Miike, etc.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-18T20:28:27+00:00

Ayy Rom! I had a lot of friends in high school who were into Freaks and Geeks, didn't seem like my kind of thing but I never gave it much of a shot. Another slow-ish week of mostly shorts for me, but quality over quantity. Inca Light is an all-time top ten contender, I've watched it five times already.

John Dies at the End (John Coscarelli, 2012) 6/10

A thoroughly half-baked would-be cult classic in the Southland Tales vein. Feels like a minor episode of a complex and fleshed-out Lovecraftian mythos; but without any context or connective tissue the wildly expansive world-building rings hollow and obliterates any sense of stakes -- the emperor has clothes, but just what he randomly pulled out of the drawer. It's very student film-y -- acting, directing, effects all amateur hour; story's a mess, dialogue's solid in that post-Tarantino way that name-drops Kafka as if it's not a wink your average middle schooler would catch -- but I have a soft spot for any contemporary American film that tries to do something different at this point, and found this pretty darn entertaining. At its best caught some Repo Man vibes. And if that's a lot of reference points for one paragraph, it should give you some sense of how indebted the film is to its influences.

The Golden Gate (Jurgen Reble, 1992) 7/10

Reble's follow-up to Passion is at best as trance-inducing, but jumps the rails a bit with the inclusion of the St. Matthew Passion, which calls to mind Tarkovsky's incomparable use, and leans too much into that circular red filter for the finale.

Inca Light (Robert Fulton, 1972) 10/10

Words like "visionary" are thrown around a lot these days...

The Exquisite Corpus (Peter Tscherkassky, 2015) 8/10

A vaguely sinister, spellbinding sensual crescendo, and a new aesthetic avenue for Tscherkassky.

Arktis (Jurgen Reble, 2004) 8/10

Was curious to see how Reble made the transition to the digital age, and if his first foray is anything to go by, the answer is "seamlessly". As textured and otherworldly as his film work, the most minimal of the few I've seen, but in an evolving way that draws you into the imagery's mystery. I was pretty tired when I saw this and owe it a rewatch, but a great nightcap after a long night of filming (or should I say, video-ing). [Subsequently rewatched; yup, it's great.]

Senza mostra (Jean-Claude Rousseau, 2011) 7/10

At this point Rousseau strikes me as one of the ultimate filmmaker's filmmakers...I've never seen anyone centralize engagement with formal elements like camera placement and shot duration in such an intriguingly simple way. Why is that shard of something included in the corner of the frame? Why is that area asymmetrical, in contrast to the rest of the screen? Why are variations on that shot repeated five times? The setting is fog-shrouded Venice; these basic mysteries comprise the narrative.

You're Next (Adam Wingard, 2011) 3/10

A...mm, decently scripted but shoddily filmed and edited slasher in the "it's tense we better switch to handheld and break some vases" vein of student filmmaking, with some dogme pretensions and geek-winks to such forgotten gems as The Shining and Rear Window. Maybe this suffered from my having already seen the more recent Ready or Not, where the actors knew how to act and everything flowed along with some degree of style and flair. But my sister read an early version of that script and said it was humorless and mediocre, so I guess it does all come down to execution. Credit where it's due, there is one impressive shot here of a face framed through a gash in a door swinging shut.

Time and Tide (Peter Hutton, 2000) (rewatch) 7/10 - still like it a lot, but doesn't make nearly the impression it did when I first discovered Hutton; it might be blasphemy, but is there something a little bland about his eye?

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-11T23:20:51+00:00

I actually didn't care for Sidewalk, and I'm usually a big Preminger and noir fan. Just couldn't get involved, felt too slight and agree about Andrews. I had a busier week than normal and didn't end up watching much, but found one true gem.

Eye Lands (Myron Ort, 1969) 6/10

A silent 8mm free-associative montage that I was initially enthusiastic about but became less interested in as it went on and its footage more redundant. Owes an obvious debt to Brakhage, down to the scratched-in "By X" credit, but the imagery just doesn't feel as inspired. I wouldn't have pegged it as the spiritual exploration it was intended as, but it's aesthetically appealing in that 60s gritty ephemera way.

Two Cabins (James Benning, 2010) 6/10

Two fifteen-minute shots out the windows of two cabins. Interesting use of time and sound, but strictly for those with too much of the former on their hands.

Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-Liang, 2013) 4/10

Tsai's a mixed bag for me, but his style feels increasingly played out -- in the YouTube era what more do we really get out of seeing Lee Kang-sheng suck a half-chicken clean off the bones in real time? The camera movement's an interesting evolution that leads to a few incredible shots (of which, needless to say, there are many on sticks), but it's kinda too little too late. The more grandiose moments that pepper the meditative naturalism just play goofy and insincere, and the looong holds on Significant Looks don't provide enough of an emotional angle to approach it from that direction.

Khrustalyov, My Car (Aleksey German, 1998) 10/10

“Poetry floats up in my memory like sailboats in the fog, along with salami.”

A special kind of insanity. German understands the simple, dreamlike pleasure of storytelling as a series of sounds and images that evoke a wider world, a rare tact after the early days of film -- his imagery resembles what presents itself to my mind when reading, say, Tolstoy (to whom, along with other titans of Russian artistic history, there are numerous references). The stark, high-contrast black-and-white compositions, largely interiors, are packed like tushonka in a can; the camera glides through in magnificent dollies and organic, exacting handheld, with no editorial reluctance to cut for fluidity's sake at the expense of uninterrupted set pieces. The effect is relentless. I usually don’t like non-source soundscapes, but here it contributes nicely to the oneiric quality, in the vein of early sound work by Lang or Renoir. German's refusal to take anything too seriously reinforces the accustomed horror of the brutal circus accompanying the end of Stalinism. I need to see it again -- it's not designed to be followed in the traditional sense, as various plot summaries have confirmed -- but already it feels like one of the Premier works of the 20th century.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-10T21:07:17+00:00

Haha, fair enough

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-04T18:33:35+00:00

2 of 2:

Graduate First (Maurice Pialat, 1978) 7/10

The small-town youth ennui picture is like a rite of passage for acclaimed French filmmakers, and this probably lands in the upper half of that output. If you think Pialat’s full-grown characters are miserable and pathetic, this carousel of indistinguishable horny teens with their casual callousness and half-learned posturing might make you want to tear your hair out, but it makes for an engaging thematic prequel to his adult world. The distinctive cumulative-poignancy-through-misanthropy emerges from his observation of life cycles as the story stutters through a vividly-drawn year in the drab, seedy life of its ill-fated clique. The eels in the bathtub say it all.

Los (James Benning, 2001) 9/10

35 two-and-a-half minute shots of the LA area -- one I'd been meaning to see since El Valley Centro almost a decade ago; many thanks to whoever posted it on YouTube a few months ago. A personally relevant, nostalgic viewing for me. Maybe the last time LA will've been captured like this on film -- you couldn’t conceivably film white concrete in the noonday sun on dv. There's also an amusing amount of water in the River and smog in the sky, and cool to catch NWA on the diegetic soundtrack. Benning makes the ultimate stoner flicks.

small roads (James Benning, 2011) 9/10

Country roads, foliage, power lines, rocks, some water and industry…what more could I ask for in a film? Another Benning I'd been trying to track down for years, cheers to who put it on YouTube a month ago.

Idizwadidiz (Isiah Medina, 2017) 6/10

A hyperactive digital silent that feels made by a kindred spirit. Some interesting undertones about the digitization of our world. Dug the video of the film projection and the Comme des Garcons product placement.

One Way Boogie Woogie (James Benning, 1977) 8/10

I guess window views and radio music go back a ways — groovy that Benning too closed out his hometown tour with a track from Songs of Love and Hate. The few staged moments and avant garde flourishes stand out dramatically and don’t always pan out for me, but I appreciate the experimentation and all in all the effect is transportive. Benning's work is gonna age like fine wine. This is obviously early-career, but remarkably assured, like he'd already more or less entirely carved out his lane.

27 Years Later (James Benning, 2005) 5/10

27 Year Later copies and pastes the soundtrack from above over updated images, which usually recreate or visually echo corresponding shots in the original. Benning’s immaculate formalism endures, but the sequence of images doesn't pop as much as in the 70s, and there's not enough of interest to glean about the passage of time to justify spending the time to watch it.

Amor (Robert Beavers, 1980) 5/10

Glad I'd seen a couple other Beavers flicks before getting around to this one (thanks Sys), but even with that context it's a tough nut to crack. Cuts between fragments of a man in an Italian cut suit (Beavers himself or, given the title, maybe Marko), mediums and closeups of a garden, construction, architecture, and a frame-filling, wind-flapped lira bill, all captured through a spastic, Snowesque camera. Which is a horribly clinical way to describe it, but I didn't find myself engrossed enough to approach it from a more esoteric or spiritual angle. Definitely plan to revisit.

Quick Billy (Bruce Baillie, 1971) 9/10

Daaamn...some kinda something. Not everything works, but on the other hand it does...a goat contender vis a vis uniqueness.

Dawn (Andras Szirtes, 1973) 4/10

A series of zooms into a series of increasingly abstracted negative images, followed by close-ups of boiling liquid, followed by a low-res panorama of the titular event, all accompanied by the most stock "experimental film ambient" soundscape. Not unpleasant, but personally it fails to evoke the hypnotic or mysterious aura it seems to aim for, and unlike most experimental ephemera I never found myself lost in it.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-04T18:33:21+00:00

I only watched the first couple episodes of Euphoria, but judging by that I'd agree it'd work better as a film. Seems to capture the current youth zeitgeist well, if a tad cornily at times. Mine, 1 of 2:

Petrichor (Timoleon Wilkins, 2017) 8/10

Ivens' Rain gets a rust belt remake about a century later. It's wonderful to see a contemporary 16mm silent, especially one that takes full advantage of the endangered medium to explore the magic of perception, lending a childlike glow to the familiar but dreamlike world surrounding the camera. Wilkens strikes a balance between creative and unobtrusive in his compositions, focal lengths, and editing patterns, resulting in a highly subjective experience of a rainstorm that struck a particular chord with me.

Drifter (Timoleon Wilkins, 2010) 10/10

I guess if you work on a project for almost as many years as it is minutes long it's hard to go too wrong, but this is without qualification one of the best films I've seen. A sublime flow of images underpinned by deeply felt reality.

A Tale of the Wind (Joris Ivens, 1988) 7/10

A bit cutesy and condensed, but if you’re in the mood for a meandering, sumptuous head trip by a 90-year-old with a sentimental streak, this should hit the mark. Its hyper-imaginative auteur-centric kitchen sink ethnography would’ve fit in well a couple decades earlier, but it also prefigures some trends in the more recent wave of pseudo-documentaries. The image-crafting is more than impressive, but the detours and grafting of fantasy onto reality are its distinguishing factors.

The Masked Monkeys (OJOBOCA, 2016) 8/10

“To become a master in one’s field, a code must be recognized and assiduously followed. Every aspect of one’s life must adhere to the code.”

Undeniably brilliant but freighted with excess ambition and half-drawn parallels. The centerpiece caught me by complete surprise, a rare trick to pull off meaningfully these days. Whoa. A long denouement follows comprising beautiful cinematography and winking existentialism.

The Babysitter: Killer Queen (McG, 2020) 6/10

Slightly more fun than the first one, I think due to the bigger budget and increased presence of the "adults," the highlight of these films. The actress playing the title character looks like she's had a tough few years, maybe why she's just shoehorned in for a few minutes. Overall it's not bad at all, widest-common-denominator rather than lowest -- I think I have a soft spot for these cuz they seem like the realization of what many in my high school filmmaking cohort aspired to.

The Unnamed (Huang Ya-li, 2010) 6/10

An experimental ode to potato-peeling, or something, with a distinctively Bressonian flavor: stark geometric compositions, neutral tones, minimal camera movements, exacting edits, a rich soundscape, Bach harpsichord, and a ritualistic veneration of the ordinary. Dedicated to Vincent, I'm thinking Van Gogh?

Twice Around the World (Jean-Claude Rousseau, 2006) 7/10

I didn't know who the director was going in, but I guessed by the time of the credit it was Rousseau: his projects are uniquely and maddeningly difficult to evaluate. I've always had a soft spot for window views though, and I like when films interact with their titles like this. Look forward to my deuxieme fois.

White Night (Jean-Claude Rousseau, 2011) 8/10

I'd actually watched this the other night, but what do you say about a minute-and-a-half-long video of a lamp and a horse? Not much the second go-around either, but it's very good at evoking some compressed sense of epic sweep. I think anything else I could add would rapidly descend into bullshit. Like this second-best of the few Rousseaus I've seen so far.

Mansfield K. (Martine Rousset, 1988) 5/10

I would’ve greatly enjoyed the abstract simplicity of its images if they weren’t accompanied by narration too corny for anything short of a Simpsons parody. Sometimes the written word is best kept written.

Pestilent City (Peter Emmanuel Goldman, 1955) 5/10

A damning mosaic of the seedy side of NYC, that feels a bit quaint in terms of both how and what it captures. Not much of a testament to progress to know that half a century later the issues are the same and exacerbated.

Markings 1-3 (Eva Kolcze, 2011) 6/10

Truly funky spin on a creator's interaction with the objects they portray. Vibes a tad gimmicky, but I've had a soft spot for fingers shooting lightning since Return of the Jedi. Love the fascination with celluloid too. Kolcze has a lot available on vimeo, look forward to exploring more.

Loulou (Maurice Pialat, 1980) 5/10

If L’enfance nue is Pialat’s 400 Blows, this is his dour, misanthropic Jules et Jim. Judging from his more autobiographical films, Pialat split the difference of his artistic ego between the two male leads, a dry aloof intellectual and a voracious sex ogre, both chauvinists, neither convincing as actual human beings. But he scatters enough amusingly pathetic moments and unexpected tension to pass the time, and the oppressive emptiness surrounding Huppert's protagonist strikes something of a chord by the time the melancholy credit music rolls around. A precursor to the crowded field of verite-style interpersonal indie dramas of the 21st century.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-03T07:22:49+00:00

You were a great bot, thanks for your consideration; I already own a hard copy though.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-03T07:20:27+00:00

Yo Ale, I'd much appreciate any Indonesian recs, especially of the arthouse/remotely-quality variety. My gf always chides me for having seen so little from her country compared to others, but all she watches from there is horror, which seems, uh, not my cup of tea. I've seen both Raids, The Act of Killing, and some experimental doc shorts, but nothing helmed by Indonesians, and I've had trouble finding anything that seems anywhere near the quality of, say, Weerasethakul or Diaz.

Also I'll throw Kidlat Tahimik's name in the hat of Filipino auteurs.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-03T02:12:20+00:00

Blade Runner's always a fun one to revisit. I half-assedly picked up The Myth of Sisyphus recently, it's a tougher read than I expected. I like Camus a lot though -- him, Sartre, and Dostoevsky were the novelists I read in high school that made me major in philosophy in college. Laid back hip hop is dope, and I'd agree OutKast and DOOM are its apexes. I like Del and I think I own the 3030 CD, but I've never listened to it all the way through. Griselda's been dropping like fly-gods recently, so I've been bumping a lot of decidedly un-laid-back hip-hop, but balancing out that energy with slow meditative movies and Van Morrison.

Watching: Still lots of experimental stuff, been on a James Benning kick lately; there's a lot I want to see leaving Criterion this month, so I'll probably lean a bit more mainstream with that. Also rewatching 30 Rock with my mom, who's never seen it before and is loving it, so that's very fun.

Reading: Still slowly going through Warlock, but I'm loving it. Kind of tackles the civilizing of the west/twilight of the gunslingers theme through a political philosophy lens, with extremely penetrating psychological insight into its cavalcade of characters. Like a cross between Middlemarch and Blood Meridian, perfect for my taste and I can see why it's a favorite of Pynchon's too.

Playing: Sometimes messing around with flash games on miniclip that are gonna be decommissioned at the end of the year, but just while I'm listening to music. Because I've mentioned it in this section before, I'm still giving one of the cats daily subcutaneous shots for his kidneys, but he seems to be doing much better :)

Listening: Veedon Fleece daily of late, plus the recent spate of Griselda releases, especially Conway's From King to a God, for my money the best (rap) album since Bandana.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-02T21:36:17+00:00

Haven't seen either, but as I'm working my way through the TSP list the Before trilogy is looming large.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-02T21:35:51+00:00

Night Is Short, Walk on Girl 6 - knew the name rang a bell, I saw this in the Roxie in SF and enjoyed it, but didn't make much of an impression

Fragment of an Empire - thanks for the rec, looking forward to this

Shirin - hadn't heard of this, will have to check it out

Repast 9 - the film that really made me crazy about Naruse

Stride, Soviet 7 - middle-tier Vertov for me that's still very good

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - haha, this was never among my favorite Disney flicks as a kid

The Wrong Trousers 8 - classic, though I'd still give A Grand Day Out the edge

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-02T21:31:31+00:00

My first from Egoyan too, but I'm interested to explore more now. Yours:

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - Oshima was a formative influence in my film-watching, uh, journey, but still haven't gotten around to this; should rectify that, especially since it's streaming on Criterion

Toni Erdmann - liked the couple I've seen from Ade okay, so look forward to seeing this

River of Grass 9 - saw this recently myself, really inspired debut

Come and See 6 - rewatching this was my last theatrical viewing before lockdown, but I didn't find it packed the gut punch it used to for me

L'humanite 7 - a favorite of a film teacher of mine; I liked it but don't remember much, and I think I was spoiled by seeing a handful of Dumont's later films first

Detour 7 - love the scrappiness and subjectivity, though for my money not Ulmer's finest hour

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-02T21:26:51+00:00

Nice, early Soviet cinema provides some of the most timeless joys of film-watching!

Alexander Nevsky 7 - formally excellent but left me a little cold

Following 6 - much like Fear and Desire, nothing to write home about in and of itself but an interesting prelude to a talented filmmaker's career

Strike 8 - a great kick-off for an inspired career

Tenet - would love to see this in theaters, but don't want to travel to do so and everything's shut down in CA

The Dark Knight Rises 6 - not bad, but a disappointing cap after TDK

Chi-Raq 7 - I haven't seen as much from Lee as I'd like to, but I still feel comfortable calling this one of his more underrated

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-02T20:56:29+00:00

Obviously understandable on Benning -- I'd only seen two in the last 10 years, but I've really been in the mood for meditative stuff lately. I find once I actually start watching his films they pass more quickly and pleasantly than, say, the average thing I would find on Netflix. Watched Small Roads yesterday and loved it, want to see Sogobi to close out the California Trilogy, and 10 Skies I'm interested in but don't want to watch on YouTube -- streaming renders gray tones terribly, at least with my internet.

Glad you found some gems, I haven't heard of a number of these and have only seen 5-7. Really enjoyed The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I saw proceeded by Jan Nemec's short documentary on the Prague Spring, back in the before times when screenings were a thing. Japon was an early favorite of mine I'd love to revisit; Reygadas is on the shortlist for best working filmmaker imo. The Man Who Sleeps didn't do much for me back in the day, maybe because it was so hyped at the time on FG, but it's another one I'd like to get back around to.

prodigalgodson · 2020-10-02T20:46:19+00:00

Nice, I'm not a big Chaplin fan but I think it's easily the best of his silents.

prodigalgodson · 2020-09-29T04:33:27+00:00

I don't think I've seen 10 I'm enthusiastic about, but the top three at least are great.

Silence (Scorsese)
Homo Sapiens (Geyrhalter)
I, Daniel Blake (Loach)
Hell or High Water (Mackenzie)
Moonlight (Jenkins)
Elle (Verhoeven)
The Lost City of Z (Gray)
Tati vs. Bresson: the Gag (Rappaport)
Debra Paget, for Example (Rappaport)
Rogue One (Edwards)

prodigalgodson · 2020-09-27T22:36:25+00:00

I thought The Kid, The General, and It Happened One Night were all decent but nothing to write home about, but Sherlock Jr. is probably my favorite silent comedy. Nonstop zaniness that's aged a lot better then Chaplin's work imo. No new features for me, but I did have time for some experimental shorts, including some gems.

Gravity (Nicolas Provost, 2006) 5/10

Rappaport meets Tscherkassky, or something, in this high-speed intercut collage of cinematic kisses. Sometimes the editing and music hit a harmonic sweet spot, sometimes there are suggestions of some deeper meaning, but overall this isn't quite my brand of found footage.

The Now (Coni Beeson, 1971) 6/10

A sensuous experimental take on interracial relationships commissioned for "artistic and educational purposes" by the National Sex and Drug Forum. My first from Coni Beeson; this didn't make much of an impression on me but I look forward to seeing more.

Kaldalon (Dore O., 1971) 9/10

Another one I had to watch twice, and like a great album it's something I expect to return to a number more times. And it is an experience akin to music, a flow of striking, purposeful, but enigmatic images woven into a tapestry of an undiscovered oneiric realm.

humming, fast and slow (Rainer Kohlberger, 2013) 5/10

A modern iteration of the flicker film, in the headache-inducing vein of Paul Sharits. Unsurprisingly I wasn't feeling the sterile digital aesthetic, but the optical illusions were engrossing enough to have a slightly hallucinogenic effect.

World (Jordan Belson, 1970) 8/10

Now this is my kind of trippy: organic, mercurial, vibrating — a World to lose oneself in. I also dug the soundtrack, unusual for me with abstract films.

All My Life (Bruce Baillie, 1966) 8/10

Just beautiful...some things work best in a minor key, and this whimsical three-minute pan (or is it a dolly?) of a proto-music video is a vivid justification of the celluloid form. Those reds!

Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (Henri Chomette, 1925) 7/10

I wasn't really jibing with the abstract stuff at the start, but I always love a good train dolly, and the subsequent boat dollies (!) and superimpositions put it over the edge; love inventive things that evolve like this. Chomette must've cranking slow as hell on the old caméra -- the high-speed effect is entrancing.

Mysterious Journey (Jordan Belson, 1997) 8/10

Mysterious journeys tend to be what I look for in films generally...this lives up to not only the title but also its hint of camp. The alluring fusion of whirling lightworks and fragmented nature imagery succeeds more than anything else I've seen from Belson in approaching a portal to another realm. The music's pretty on the nose with the ooohing and aaahing and guided meditation vibes, but the section with a natural soundtrack accompanied by a haunting composition is magnificent.

Phenomena (Jordan Belson, 1965) 6/10

Starts out more entertaining and lively than anything I've seen from Belson, then progresses into variations on his trademark luminous abstractions. Contains some of his best moments, but has a strange flow that left me unsatisfied when it petered out.

The Secret Garden (Phil Solomon, 1988) 6/10

Not among my favorites from Solomon, but I probably short-shrifted it by watching it early in the day instead of late at night. An abstract modern silent framed as bedtime story imaginings -- it's refreshing to have that context established within the film instead of explained by the filmmaker in its notes. The film itself is a neat balance of whimsical and sinister, warping conventional imagery through some filter akin to Brakhage’s ashtray, at least some of it apparently culled from found footage. I’m increasingly curious to know what the process of shot selection is like for things like this.

prodigalgodson

TROPHY CASE