movies...

[A.M. Thomas]

Connect Four!

[Martin]

Speaking of Little Otik, pretty much everything Jan Svankmajer's done since the sixties is gold, especially his short films (available on a couple of DVD collections; I'm sure you can find a bunch of them on YouTube aswell). They might not be for everyone, but I love them. Not overwhelmed by his latest though (Lunacy), but it was alright.

[kimota]

I watched this recently and was blown away.
(from wikipedia)
The Five Obstructions (Danish: De Fem benspænd) is a 2003 film by Lars Von Trier and Jørgen Leth. The film is a documentary, but incorporates lengthy sections of experimental films produced by the filmmakers. The premise is that Lars Von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jørgen Leth, another filmmaker. Von Trier's favourite film is Leth's The Perfect Human (1967). Von Trier gives Leth the task of remaking The Perfect Human five times, each time with a different 'obstruction' (or obstacle) given by Von Trier.

[Denim Gremlin]

I watched this recently and was blown away.
(from wikipedia)
The Five Obstructions (Danish: De Fem benspænd) is a 2003 film by Lars Von Trier and Jørgen Leth. The film is a documentary, but incorporates lengthy sections of experimental films produced by the filmmakers. The premise is that Lars Von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jørgen Leth, another filmmaker. Von Trier's favourite film is Leth's The Perfect Human (1967). Von Trier gives Leth the task of remaking The Perfect Human five times, each time with a different 'obstruction' (or obstacle) given by Von Trier.

I hate lars von trier but I'm gonna say i was pretty entertained by five obstructions.

can't say the same for the film that inspired it, ew boy....

[buffcoat]

I three-quarters heartedly recommend the horribly-named "Duck You Sucker" by Leone, the middle one of his second trilogy.  It's a good weird western in the Leone style, with the revolution-era Mexican government standing in for the Nazis.  Rod Steiger's accent is embarrassing.  James Coburn is good but I kept wanting to say "Good... lauck..." every time he got in a stagecoach.

The name stuck because Leone insisted (over Steiger and Coburn's repeated objections) that Duck, You Sucker was a common American phrase.  Some places you'll see it called "A Fistful of Dynamite."

Yes.  I love it.  I believe its third aka is Once Upon a Time in the Revolution to go along with the other two Once Upon a Times.

Even worse, it was "Once Upon a Time... The Revolution."  Because Americans love ellipses in their titles.

Hey no underbites, is "Once Upon a Time in America" worth the incredible slog it must take to watch it?

[Dorvid Barnas]

I just now got around to seeing Cooley High, and it was all the more fun to pretend I was watching Mayor Clarence Royce as a horny teenager.

[Pat K]

Hey no underbites, is "Once Upon a Time in America" worth the incredible slog it must take to watch it?

You didn't ask me, but....no.

[nkrauter]

I just watched Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows and thought it was really, really good.  It's a WWII French Resistance movie, but it doesn't really use any WWII/Resistance movie cliches (I think Melville was actually in the Resistance for the reals).  If you want something that's a little more fun, I like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.  It's a Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges proto-buddy-action-heist movie.  Pretty weird. 

Oh, and I slogged my way through Once Upon a Time in America, and Pat K is right.  It's not that good.  Actually, I really like all the stuff about when the characters are kids, but that's only like 30 minutes of a 9 hour movie. Oh well.

[A.M. Thomas]

Yeah, I'll agree with what's been said about Once Upon a Time in America.  The kid scenes are great, but not really worth wading through the rest of Noodles' life for.  I think Leone was just getting really old at that point.  Watching it made me glad he turned down the offer to direct The Godfather.

[Phantom Hugger]

personal favorite.... Bab Boy Bubby

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106341/

aims high, hits it's targets (mostly) and rewards!

also I'll throw The Cincinnati Kid into the gritty 70's film love pile.
(I also liked The Swimmer for what it's worth)

This movie is great if you turn it off after the first twenty-five minutes.

Yes, the first 25 minutes alone would have AP Mike in stitches.

[Sarah]

Bad Boy Bubby looks like exactly the kind of movie I like.  And thanks to the wonders of the torrenting, soon I'll find out whether this is true.  I'll also be able to decide for myself whether Mark on Top Chef was misguided when he proposed creating a dish inspired by this movie.

[samir]

I just saw Shine a Light. Not quite as good as the first night of the 1981 Tattoo You tour at the Spectrum - available soon on WaWa Records! - but pretty solid nonetheless. And I'm no Stones fan, but I definitely enjoyed it.

[SJK]

"I Am Cuba"(1964, Mikhail Kalatozov). A propaganda film made by Russians for Castro. It tells the story of the Cuban revolution through portraits of various characters. Shot using infrared black and white...the cinematography is stunning. It's a long haul. However I think it is worth it, pictures are amazing. The acting can be a little troubling at times, watching Russian actors play American sailors. It's interesting to see how the east portrayed the west during the cold war.

[Pat K]

"I Am Cuba"(1964, Mikhail Kalatozov).

I second that emotion. A must-see for anyone who likes looking at images.

[Matt]

I just saw Shine a Light. Not quite as good as the first night of the 1981 Tattoo You tour at the Spectrum - available soon on WaWa Records! - but pretty solid nonetheless. And I'm no Stones fan, but I definitely enjoyed it.

I almost went to go see that this weekend. I've never seen a concert film in a theater before, so I figured it'd be an interesting movie to see, but then I remembered that I'd be plunking down the better part of ten bucks to see a group of 65-year-olds play "She Was Hot". In the end, I stayed in and watched Christopher Walken on SNL, which was equally depressing in its own right.