Pick the Film I Should Watch Tonight (elitism ITT)

[Eric P]

Haneke's The Castle

[TVC15]

Haneke doing Kafka?  Why have I not seen that.  I vote The Castle.

[bud]

what would you say is the gateway elitist movie for a noob?

[Eric P]

what would you say is the gateway elitist movie for a noob?

i dunno.  there's an awful lot out there.

what was the last movie you absolutely loved?  I can see if i can match up an elitist version which solo can then come and argue about

[bud]

i watched charlie wilson's war today--amazing movie

and i think children of men is one of the best movies ever

[Eric P]

i'd say you are already well on your way to snobbery.

charlie wilson's war is excellent and i too enjoy the hell out of children of men

but you know what would have made both films better? 

foreign languages and subtitles and an overpriced criterion release.

Do you have a Netflix account?

[TVC15]

SPIRIT OF THE MOTHERCUNTIN BEEHIVE

[bud]

recommend me a criterion

those things always have the best artsy boxarts ever

name one and i'll totally watch it

[CajoleJuice]

Brazil

It's the only Criterion I've watched.




Oh wait, Armageddon and The Rock have Criterion editions.

[TVC15]

recommend me a criterion

those things always have the best artsy boxarts ever

name one and i'll totally watch it

I JUST DID

http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=351

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE!  Criterion of the Year, 2006.

[bud]

that seems interesting enough

eric, recommend me one too

i'll try to watch both by the end of next week

i can feel the elitist inside of me

[Phoenix Dark]

recommend me a criterion

those things always have the best artsy boxarts ever

name one and i'll totally watch it

I JUST DID

http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=351

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE!  Criterion of the Year, 2006.

i want to eat that boy's eyes. omg i've never felt this way before

[TVC15]

You ever see this, Eric P:

http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=423

Alex Cox, Ed Harris, western, Joe Strummer. . .it has to be interesting, right?

[TVC15]

recommend me a criterion

those things always have the best artsy boxarts ever

name one and i'll totally watch it

I JUST DID

http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=351

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE!  Criterion of the Year, 2006.

i want to eat that boy's eyes. omg i've never felt this way before

That's a little girl!  Pedo.

[Eric P]

The Virgin Spring
The 400 Blows
Army of Shadows
The Bad Sleep Well
The Battle of Algiers
Bicycle Thieves
Charade
Cléo from 5 to 7
Divorce Italian Style
Eyes Without a Face
The Face of Another
The Fallen Idol
La haine
High and Low
Insomnia
Jubilee
Kind Hearts & Coronets
The Leopard
Le million
Onibaba
The Passion of Joan of Arc (one of my favorite movies)
Peeping Tom
Pickup on South Street
Playtime
Rashomon
Rififi
The Ruling Class
Le samourai
The Spirit of the Beehive
Straw Dogs
The Third Man
Throne of Blood

this is largely a list of "entry level" films which are in familiar genres or are more accessible than others.  though of course this is my on personal opinion and other people at this forum will think i've included films which are not needed while also leaving many out.

[TVC15]

Straw Dogs has an awesome rape scene, so I would go with that.

[Phoenix Dark]

I still need to see The Third Man

Insomnia...are you referring to Nolan's? I thought you fegs hated that movie, which I think is good 

[Eric P]

You ever see this, Eric P:

http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=423

Alex Cox, Ed Harris, western, Joe Strummer. . .it has to be interesting, right?

I hadn't actually but in looking at the criterion site, i became aware of it and have added it to my queue

for you, i would like to suggest The Fire Within which I just recently watched.  The film is good on its own but when you watch the supplemental material and then re watch the film it become zomfgawesome when placed within context

[TVC15]

I still need to see The Third Man

Insomnia...are you referring to Nolan's? I thought you fegs hated that movie, which I think is good 

No, the original.

for you, i would like to suggest The Fire Within which I just recently watched.  The film is good on its own but when you watch the supplemental material and then re watch the film it become zomfgawesome when placed within context

Actually, I am going to get The Passion of Joan of Arc, as well.  I love love love silent movies.

I kinda wish Criterion would do an Eclipse Fritz Lang collection or something.  Most of his silent stuff is public domain now.

[demi]

what would you say is the gateway elitist movie for a noob?

Juno

[Eric P]

I still need to see The Third Man

Insomnia...are you referring to Nolan's? I thought you fegs hated that movie, which I think is good 

no

the original which is so incredibly bleak.  it opened my eyes to modern scandinavian crime cinema which is bleak, bleak, bleak, bleak.

i can't imagine the nolan version being anywhere near as good

[CajoleJuice]

Yeah, jarosh told me about the original -- sounds awesome.

[Eric P]

Haneke's version of the castle just feels a bit off right now.  It's more comedic right now with a tone better suited for Amerika rather than The Castle.  HOWEVER, the problems with him trying to find a place to sleep are well handled.  So far, it's interesting, but there's a LOT of narration.

edit: it also has the fat kid from Funny Games.

[EvilBoris]

I still need to see The Third Man

Insomnia...are you referring to Nolan's? I thought you fegs hated that movie, which I think is good 

no

the original which is so incredibly bleak.  it opened my eyes to modern scandinavian crime cinema which is bleak, bleak, bleak, bleak.

i can't imagine the nolan version being anywhere near as good

 Nolan's remake has a magnificently haggard Al Pacino to make up for being less atmospheric.

[Eric P]

TVC, Haneke's The Castle is really quite worth watching so far.  another hour to go, so it could go horribly horribly wrong, but this is quite enjoyable as an adaptation and as a haneke film

[Eric P]

film over.

good for an adaptation of an unfinished novel.  it literally stops where kafka stopped writing in mid sentence.

ok for a haneke film.

kind of meh for a kafka film

[bud]

isn't rififi about a robbery? i've heard about that movie before. there's going to be a remake with pacino in it, btw.

and straw dogs is that movie dustin hoffman, iirc. i've seen a little bit of that movie and i liked what i saw.

i'll watch those two and beehive.

[Ichirou]

Rififi's a great French film noir and one of the best heist movies I've ever seen.  The heist sequence, which happens around the middle of the film, is like thirty minutes long and done without a soundtrack and no speaking, nothing except natural sound, and it's absolutely riveting.  Great performances all around and a pretty awesome bleak ending.

Walker isn't a western, I dunno why people here are categorizing it as such, it's a biopic of some wacky Amurrrican who went to South America and did a lot of crazy shit.  The movie is really a mess, deliberately anachronistic in parts (there's a scene where Walker is reading an issue of Time magazine from the 1980s, as I recall), and one of Alex Cox's worst (his best being Three Businessmen, Revengers Tragedy which I think TVC STILL hasn't seen, Sid & Nancy and Repo Man).  Not as bad as Straight to Hell, but only worth watching for the Harris performance.

[Ichirou]

Man Bites Dog

That's a pretty fucking awesome one.  After I watched it I went on Wiki to look up info about it and found out the director killed himself a while back.

[Eric P]

Walker isn't a western, I dunno why people here are categorizing it as such, it's a biopic of some wacky Amurrrican who went to South America and did a lot of crazy shit. 

i haven't seen it so i am just going by what criterion says

did you catch Blast of Silence?  It is interesting.  Very bleak.  does not feel like it came from a major hollywood studio

[Eric P]

the director Allen Baron appears to have done mostly television, but he did two noirs back to back. Blast of Silence and Terror in the City, which doesn't look like it's out on dvd.

[Ichirou]

I don't remember ever even hearing of it until you just mentioned it.  Looking at the cast/production page, the only name I even recognize is Lionel Stander's as the narrator.  Blast of Silence is out on DVD?  I hope it's not one of those public domain discs, the quality on those tends to be pretty bad.

[Eric P]

Nosir.  It's a new criterion.

[Ichirou]

Criterion chooses the weirdest shit sometimes.

[Eric P]

yes, yes it does

Armageddon?

The Fiend Without a Face?

[Ichirou]

The Michael Bay films I know they picked just 'cuz they knew they were going to sell plenty of copies.  But stuff like that Monsters and Madmen box set (movies that really didn't rate the attention, IMO), crap like Border Radio, Italian sex comedies like Seduced and Abandoned, and cheesy stuff like Equinox...you never can tell what they're gonna put out on that label.