General film discussion topic

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BleuPanda
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General film discussion topic

Post by BleuPanda »

Our current board is pretty covered in survey topics, so I figured we might as well have one to simply discuss what we've been watching.

I was having some issues this weekend and ended up watching 6 movies between Saturday and Sunday. I got fairly caught up on the 90s film survey. These are the six:
An Angel At My Table
Forbidden Planet
King of New York
Point Break
Trust
JFK

An interesting batch of films. Forbidden Planet was surprisingly good, one of the better looking films from its era. It story wasn't all there, but I didn't exactly go in expecting a narrative masterpiece.

An Angel At My Table was a gripping tale about a rather unique life; it wasn't entirely my style, but it definitely has me excited for The Piano.

I didn't really get much out of King of New York. It had some interesting stylistic elements, but I'm not sure if it added up to anything more. I also didn't really get the gang dynamics at play here; though, once again, it does have me interested in Bad Lieutenant, so I'm hoping that manages to place.

Point Break was a ridiculous Hollywood film, but what it lacked in depth it made up for with some impressive cinematography.

I feel like Trust will be one of my favorite discoveries of the current project. I love films that have a really colorful take on the world, and the love story at its simple was effectively quirky and sweet.

JFK is complicated. I have a problem with a lot of its arguments, but it also does a fantastic job capturing the passion people have for these conspiracies. I'm also annoyed by the idea of the 'Magic Bullet,' which by this point has been discussed enough that people have actually discovered the actual trajectory if that single shot did happen. So, I guess it's good as a historic piece but bad at actually being convincing?


I still have 9 films to catch up on from 1990 and 1991. 4 are easy to come by, but five of them (Ju Dou, The Hairdresser's Husband, The Lovers on the Bridge, La belle noiseuse, and The Adjuster) aren't available through Netflix (streaming or DVD) or Amazon streaming/digital renting. How do you all find these movies? I'm assuming part of it is the fact that a few of these are French and possibly easier to find outside America, but why are these classic films so hard to come across? I especially want to watch Ju Dou, as Zhang Yimou has quickly become one of my favorite directors. Argh...even more annoying is that I know The Lovers on the Bridge used to be on Netflix streaming, but I didn't get around to it in time.
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Dexter
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by Dexter »

...I especially want to watch Ju Dou, as Zhang Yimou has quickly become one of my favorite directors...

I don't know about you but where I'm from a simple search of the film in youtube will display a result, with English subtitles to boot. So if you can't find one with much better video resolution, give this one a go.
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BleuPanda
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by BleuPanda »

Dexter wrote:...I especially want to watch Ju Dou, as Zhang Yimou has quickly become one of my favorite directors...

I don't know about you but where I'm from a simple search of the film in youtube will display a result, with English subtitles to boot. So if you can't find one with much better video resolution, give this one a go.
I noticed it had a bunch of negative reviews and figured there was something wrong with it...but then when I checked again at work, it looks like it has ads every two minutes. So if the problem is the ads (which my adblocker at home removes) and not the film, I'll use that.
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by BleuPanda »

Or, silly me, I can just check the UIUC library (the 7th largest library in the US). I found Ju Dou, The Lovers on the Bridge, The Adjuster, and the original Heimat (the second is on Netflix...but I'd also like to avoid going through seven discs...), all just sitting in our undergraduate media section. All that leaves is The Hairdresser's Husband (which they had on VHS...perhaps there's a viewing station somewhere) and La belle noiseuse, which with another search are both available through loan from other libraries in the network. It looks like I'm set.


The real trouble will be finding the time to watch Heimat and then Heimat II...
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BleuPanda
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by BleuPanda »

I only have three films left from 1990 and 1991 now. I currently have Thelma and Louise from the library and am waiting for The Hairdresser's Husband. Unfortunately, all the copies of La belle noiseuse in the library network cannot be requested...
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BleuPanda
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by BleuPanda »

I currently have 55.1 hours left to catch up with the 90s list...only 29.5 if I cut out Heimat 2. I feel like I've been too busy watching movies to write about them. Most of that comes from the 1993 list which was just posted; I have 14 movies left, 8 of those from 1993. Hopefully this gets easier as we approach the late 90s, where I'm more familiar with the classics.


(Note that I also watched Heimat over the past few weeks, which isn't part of the survey but added an extra 15 hours...)
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BleuPanda
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by BleuPanda »

I finished Heimat 2 last night...wasn't really my kind of thing. I might have enjoyed it more if the DVDs I had available here higher quality, but a lot of these extended mini-series don't click with me as much as they do others.


I had 6 movies remaining until the 1994 list came out today; luckily, I have actually seen 13 of the 15 to move on. I should hopefully catch up with the list before 1995 comes out; too bad 1996 will have around 10 I haven't seen, but I feel fairly confident in my knowledge of 1997 on.
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BleuPanda
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by BleuPanda »

I just watched Moonlight; it's an easy contender for my film of the decade. I'd say more, but I'm sleepy and need to think about it more.
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by 450 »

BleuPanda wrote:I finished Heimat 2 last night...wasn't really my kind of thing. I might have enjoyed it more if the DVDs I had available here higher quality, but a lot of these extended mini-series don't click with me as much as they do others.
did you see Heimat 1? And if so, did you like 1?
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BleuPanda
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Re: General film discussion topic

Post by BleuPanda »

fredp wrote:
BleuPanda wrote:I finished Heimat 2 last night...wasn't really my kind of thing. I might have enjoyed it more if the DVDs I had available here higher quality, but a lot of these extended mini-series don't click with me as much as they do others.
did you see Heimat 1? And if so, did you like 1?

I did, and I also didn't really care.
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