Lol.

Yeah. “Rocky” has heart too, though. But indeed... wrong choice.

Goddamn academy.

oh yeah she was very good—pimply forehead and all

which is why it was so depressing—i mean, that life.

reminds me of that mike leigh movie about the cab driver, but in a way bleaker because there are no parents. more like that 90s movie “kids”, sorta.

neorrealism lives on.

so the people with the horse are travellers?

Yeah, they're travellers.

The film definitely comes out of that Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Alan Clarke, tradition. Have you ever seen Gary Oldman's film Nil By Mouth? That takes gritty to a whole other level.

I was literally thinking about that when reading Symbols' post. Amazing film and probably the only film where I can stand Ray Winstone for more than 5 minutes. Kathy Burke, however, is just incredible in it/

Yeah agree all round. But as brilliant as it is, I've only managed to get through it a couple of times. Maybe because of how brilliant it is, in terms of what it's about.

i recognize the title but that’s about all—now im interested

thanks!

fassbinder’s THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (1978)



i had seen this so long ago and so out of context i did not remember it at all. ok maybe i did not see it at all and i just dreamed it. ive seen veronika voss for sure. i think ive seen lola.

anyway it was great to watch it after all these (years? never?) and see that—this is not a play like other of his previous movies. this is a novel!

and it’s pretty epic in scope, and awesome. it does not hurt that hannah schygulla is hot as fuck in this ha ha ha. but no, greeeeeat story and characters, and i get that this is an allegory of the adenauer era and i don’t get it completely but i get some of it and i loved this film. no, not like la dolce vita, but more than, uh, too many american bullshit films to count.

the shadow of sirk is still there at times but i feel the vocabulary of images has exploded and expanded to match the scope of the story. it was a brilliant job, especially measured against his previous achievements.

sure this is a tragedy but it does not lack its hilarious moments. more of a tragicomedy? something. but that the final scene happened with the background of the 1954 world cup final blasting out the radio (or maybe it was the foreground, depends how you listen) was great and super cackleworthy. puskas! puskas! ha ha ha ha. wow.

brilliant really. i get that it’s somehow “provincial” in scope as it deals specifically with one nation’s politics, so that a lot is lost in translation, and so it misses out on greater universal appeal (la dolce vita im looking at you oh glorious text) but maria, as a character, in her own personal life, and her story, even without the politics, holy fuck, wow. she is great. and yeah she is also the german miracle, and bits of that i’ll have to read about, but at the sheer soap opera level, she is fucking great.

EXCALIBUR (john boorman, 1981)



as cheesy and over the top as this here poster, but nevertheless great

one thing about rewatching this after multiple viewings of monty python and the holy grail is that they both merge in my mind and im not sure if a dude is gonna show up clapping with coconuts or if lancelot is gonna say ‘tis but a fleshwound when arthur duels him. but it’s alright, i can tell them apart (sometimes). this adds a good measure of ironic detachment and contributes to the enjoyment.

the loud-ass soundtrack is a match to the nearly absurd declamatory acting style of this film, and it’s awesome. i think this movie was the first time i heard carmina burana.

it’s all very loud and grandiose. tons of clatter.

I liked this too.

This is the one with Patrick Stewart, right?

yes—some of the cast would go big in the 90s. picard is in it, a young liam neeson is in it, hyacinth bucket’s husband is in it, caravaggio is in it, gabriel byrne is in it, and helen mirren in all her glory is in it. wait, not all of her glory but yeah.

the lady of the lake now owns an irish pub in fort lauderdale. fact!

Paris, Texas

Watched this for the first time on Sunday. There are some films you know you should see but for one reason or other the years go by and you still haven't. This is one of them. Let's just say thank GOD I didn't wait any longer. Such an amazing film.

yeeees! great movie

i like wim wenders in general too. even the cheesy ones.

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wow i actually have not watched his stuff in ages! lots of new stuff. i need a refresh.

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filmstruck ends in 2 days boooo hooooo hoooooo waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh many tears

Paris, Texas is fantastic.

Criterion's launching an independent streaming service in spring 2019. It's basically going to be Filmstruck without most of the TCM stuff:

https://www.criterion.com/current/po...ch-spring-2019

"We hope to be available in both the U.S. and Canada at launch, rolling out to additional territories over time."

yes—thanks!

ive known this for a while, but spring could be anything from february to may... i almost wrote them today to ask, ha ha ha, for a firm date

6 months to may is a very long slog, having already tasted paradise...

to february... i can do one month of netflix trash and one month of hbo to keep me entertained.

beyond that, oh... i might get the DTs... :D

I don't watch it regularly, but I'll always love Almost Famous.

fassbinderks VERONIKA VOSS (1982)



been on a fassbinder roll lately, loving the misery of it all. veronika voss does not disappoint and delivers many glycerin tears oh yes.

this is kinda like sunset boulevard meets sirk on acid. lol “on acid”. what i mean is it’s shot old-school like a 50s movie in grainy black and white except there are weird light effects, reflections, glasses, out of place music, all sorts of effects calling attention to themselves, very brechtian, at the same time that a very tortured melodrama takes place, with frequent narrative jumps. bananas!

fucksakes it was all a great story, and while maria braun seemed more of an allegory of the german miracle i am not sure what this is, except an allegory of fassbinder’s life or something, because... ah, no spoilers.

anyway i hope i get to catch LOLA tomorrow, not sure if filmstruck will still be operational or till what hour, meaning, if it’s the last day of service or if it’s the day of the actual shutdown

fucksakes! this hurts. la puta madre...

if it fails i might watch the blue angel on youtube... appears to be there...

Halloween II

The sequel to the original, not the reboot. It's no way up to the 1st one but maybe a little too easily overlooked these days. It's not a classic by any means but I certainly prefer it to either of Rob Zombie's films. Weirdly, the tone of this seems closer to Argento than to Carpenter - even though Carpenter produced it.

holy shit! yes!