Thirith on 28/9/2020 at 06:51
I also like the second film better (especially everything to do with Fredo), but The Godfather has so many of those iconic scenes: the wedding, the horse's head, the killing of Sonny, the parallel baptism/murders towards the end etc. There are some scenes and sequences in The Godfather Part II that have always felt like they're trying to echo and top the first film, such as the birthday party at Lake Tahoe, and those I'm not a huge fan of, but the character arcs are great. I wouldn't want to miss either film, really.
What I'll always love is that final scene in Part II, where Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone never turns up, but he has such a tangible presence.
Sulphur on 28/9/2020 at 07:58
Quote Posted by henke
I'm thinking of ending things
Yeah, that was good. I felt it. And I'm sure ttlg is full of just-past-their-prime sad fuckers who might feel this movie strongly as well. Pour yourself a drink and watch it, it'll be worth the time.
I saw it, but felt strongly only about the little asides more than its main thrust. Anyway, prime is a relative concept - just ask my uncle!
Thirith on 28/9/2020 at 08:29
To some extent I've had that with all the Kaufman films. I like them, but afterwards I find myself remembering individual scenes, moments, images, performances, and the way the film feels, more than the film and plot in their entirety. When I rewatched Synecdoche, NY for our podcast, there were bits in there that I barely remembered, usually those bits that I don't like all that much myself.
Sulphur on 28/9/2020 at 08:42
I think at this point we've recognised Kaufman's basic formula of wrapping the world of the movie in an emotional or mental illness springing from the minds of its characters all the way back from Being John Malkovich. The fabric or texture of them betrays Kaufman's own personality bleeding through, which is what I think we (or me, at any rate) are getting tired of.
I think his best work is when a director tempers or complements his arthouse interiority (to use a much-focused upon word from IToET) with grounded, relatable performances from the characters, so it's no surprise that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind remains, IMO, the most balanced of his work in ensuring there's people to care about in the middle of all the things they've manifested upon themselves. IToET has far more of a Waiting for Godot vibe to it, which is chilling, but the (calculated) lack of personality means almost nothing of its main character sticks when all is said and done.
Thirith on 28/9/2020 at 10:37
I agree with you that Kaufman directing Kaufman does mean diminishing returns to some extent, though I do like some of what he's brought to the table as a director that wasn't there as much when others directed him, namely his commitment to keeping his characters unlikeable and the deep sadness he can evoke. Sometimes (often?) this does admittedly turn into (or start off as) morose navel-gazing, but when it works it works tremendously well. Ideally, I'd want him to alternate between films written by him but directed by others and films where he does both.
With respect to IToET, and coming back to my initial reaction, I'll remember the Jessie Buckley character much more than Jake in any of his incarnations. She brings an energy to the film that I've not seen in Kaufman's other films (at least those he directed), which is both what I liked about the film in its first two thirds and what still doesn't sit well with me in its last part, however much it's justified by what the film is about.
Harvester on 28/9/2020 at 18:30
Some old Dutch movies that used to be hard to find now became available to rent on a Dutch streaming service. So I finally got to watch Spoorloos, which is considered a classic and even got rave reviews internationally. I took the time to read a bunch of IMDb user reviews and the late Roger Ebert's review and the movie is very well-respected, with many calling it one of the scariest or most disturbing movies they've ever seen. The English title is The Vanishing (Spoorloos literally means 'without a trace'), not to be confused with the Hollywood remake which is supposed to be quite mediocre, partly because they wimped out on the original's uncompromising ending.
Now I don't have a very high opinion of the Dutch film industry in general but this movie lives up to its reputation. It's impressive how they can make a movie with hardly any violence, no blood/gore at all and even hardly any rough language still disturbing and shocking. I think this can be called a horror movie even, albeit a very atypical one. I already knew how it was going to end, I had it spoiled for me on the internet years ago, but I still had a great time with it. It's also a nice time capsule movie, with the 80s haircuts, cars, street scenes and scenes in and around a French gas station. Of course I've seen many Hollywood 80s movies that take place in America, but not too many 80s movies that take place in the Netherlands (and France), so that was fun for me. Also a very atypical villain with a peculiar motive, who even has some amount of respect for the guy chasing him (and when they meet, it's one of the most unusual protagonist vs. antagonist confrontations I've ever seen). That guy, our protagonist, wants nothing more than answers to what happened to his girlfriend. He thinks not knowing is the worst thing there is. Turns out he's wrong.
As Ebert points out, this movie is also special in the way that the audience knows who the perpetrator is from very early on in the movie, and we continually know more than the main character does. Still it's never boring, and thinking back on it now I appreciate all the little details and foreshadowing, and there's even some discussion of philosophical themes which play into the villain's motive for committing his crime.
One of the best Dutch movies I ever watched. 9/10.
SubJeff on 29/9/2020 at 00:09
The Gentlemen.
It's not on par with his others but I don't get the hate it gets. I quite enjoyed it.
Starker on 29/9/2020 at 00:17
I remember this film. Way back when I went on a "psychological horror/thriller" binge and watched a bunch of things like Les Diaboliques and Jacob's Ladder and this was easily one of the more memorable ones. Well worth watching if you're into the more subtle horror movies.
Tocky on 29/9/2020 at 00:25
Quote Posted by Sulphur
I stopped watching around season three because while I was morbidly (heh heh) curious, at that point it was getting be too much of a bad thing. Questionable plot and formulaic characters aside, it wasn't interested in anything but soapy contrivances and jerking characters along for the ride. I hear it gets much worse after season 4, but I'd had enough of its paper-thin psychodrama well before.
Oh I don't mind seeing characters jerked along by emotion. That's life. I don't even mind me being jerked along by emotion particularly when I didn't think I would feel anything for Dex and for the first two seasons the story archs were unique enough to keep me interested. In three it becomes contrived but as his early years were unfolding it was doing so slowly and in a way new to me. The constant threat of exposure was something only matched by Breaking Bad. It lends a pressure of suspense and unease. I think perhaps you are seeing it through the lens of your disappointment that it never blossomed into something greater whereas I see it as still being better than 95% of the crap on TV. I wouldn't call it paper thin if for no other reason than it is a psychodrama with a new slant on the psycho.
What bugs me most is his lack of self awareness. It makes his epiphanies labored and too drawn out. But then look at all those on facebook posting lame aphorisms that, known to everyone but them, apply to themselves most.
Sulphur on 29/9/2020 at 03:40
Well, more power to you if you like it. I thought it was pretty transparently the writers jerking them along with plot contrivances, not emotions, by S3. S1 was interesting, but it lost any of that potential down the line by giving in to vapidity. Yes, the cat and mouse game was exciting, until it became clear they couldn't sustain it forever. And there's no deep emotional well to what's going on, it's about puddle deep. Here's something to chew over: actual psychopathy/serial killer traits don't need a traumatic childhood to make someone an emotionless killer. Many times, that's just how they are. For others, it takes years of prolonged childhood trauma. In trying to explain it away with a single repressed 'origin point', Dexter actually does damage to the general public's idea of where this can come from.
Generally, I wouldn't have a problem with this, because it's TV, but the show's general writing of secondary characters as broad, underdeveloped archetypes mixing in with Dexter's need to kill comes off like a poorly written procedural show colliding with a problematic serialised look into the mind of a killer, and that's a combination that's just jarring.
And yes, a lot of TV is crap, but as of the past ten years the kinds of TV shows that have been coming out have been very, very good. Dexter is not one of them.