The Movies Discussion Thread

[justabagofatoms]

Thanks for the link. I should have known that. Are you by any chance familiar with the French artist, Moebius?


Hundreds of artists were involved in "Avatar". I know people that don't consider computer art to be valid, but I think that premise is ridiculous. I don't think "art" can be defined, in the first place.

[Idisaffect]

Hundreds of artists were involved in "Avatar"

It's like an assembly line for producing eye candy.

[Damn!t]

This new NOLAN's film looks promising.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z75o-F6ja2I

[wiped]

Watched the A-Team on Tues night .... absolute pants but thats what I was expecting. Also recently watched Grown Ups which is a comedy curiously devoid of jokes ...

[David Smith]

Watched Antichrist last night - one of the most pretensious films i've seen in recent memory. Very nice gorey bits, sure, but with lifeless characters, a flimsy script and constant sex scenes the graphic nature of the film just felt utterly gratuatous - not something that rests nicely considering how seriously it takes itself and the imagery that just screams about a subtext that i felt not in the least bit inspired to figure out. Not good enough to be a character driven drama and not scary enough to be a horror film.

[danielcaux]

Pretentious, that's the perfect adjective for Lars von Trier, the great dogmatic moralist of XXI cinema.

[PublicImage]

I think he's a great prankster.

[David Smith]

As much of a total wank as he is i am rather fond of Dancer in the dark

[PublicImage]

I love The Kingdom, Dogville, Manderlay, The Idiots and The Five Obstructions. And I liked watching Antichrist because of its atmosphere, soundscape, acting and cinematography.

He's much less of a "dogmatic moralist" than Michael Haneke, in my opinion. And his films are much funnier and less serious.

[David Smith]

Watched Ichi The Killer last night which had some pretty good torture effects (minus the CGI body being cut in half) and intriguing characterisation.

I love The Kingdom, Dogville, Manderlay, The Idiots and The Five Obstructions. And I liked watching Antichrist because of its atmosphere, soundscape, acting and cinematography.

Fair play on the atmosphere and music in Antichrist. It showed VonTrier can clearly make a film, even if i feel he missed a brilliant oppurtunity with it. Dogville was interestingly done and very well acted, and i enjoyed The Idiots even if i can't remember a whole lot about it. Not seen the others though. Never watched anything by Haneke though. Not seen much of the whole Dogma movement, but i remember enjoying Festen a lot.

[PublicImage]

Festen is miles better than most of Von Trier's films. It's a shame Thomas Vinterberg hasn't done much of note since then.

[danielcaux]

I have only watched one Haneke film: The White Ribbon. In my opinion a film that lacks any kind of moral compass inbeded into the work. Matter of fact, I think it actually IS about the relativity, and futility to some extent, of having any kind of moral compass in our life. Or perhaps that's just my own reading. Intriguing film anyway. Don't know about his other films though.

I agree with PI. Festen was good, miles above Von Trier films.

I wonder what would people think of Dancer In The Dark if it lacked the Björk songs? It's really just a mellodramatic soap opera story, isn't it?

:SPOILER SPOILER:
The good naive poor heroine that gets raped by society. Oh yes and she is blind ...and has a son with a degenerative disease ...and gets fired from her job ...and lose all of her saved money ...and it's found guilty of murder ...and it's finally executed. Bad society! Bad! Don't do that ever again!

[PublicImage]

I have only watched one Haneke film: The White Ribbon. In my opinion a film that lacks any kind of moral compass inbeded into the work. Matter of fact, I think it actually IS about the relativity, and futility to some extent, of having any kind of moral compass in our life. Or perhaps that's just my own reading. Intriguing film anyway. Don't know about his other films though.

All I can say is, watch Funny Games! It's such a condescendingly dogmatic film that at one point, one of the characters directly addresses the camera to tell the audience they are terrible people for being entertained by violence in films. Even if I agreed with that (which I don't), I'd still find it completely irritating. His other films are much better, admittedly, and it seems like he's matured significantly to make films like Hidden and The White Ribbon in recent years.

Dancer in the Dark is one of the most melodramatic films in the world. The second time I watched it, I found it quite amusing. Especially the bit where they're in the court and the judge is called "A.D. Mantle". I have a hard time taking anything Lars von Trier does seriously anymore, but I think he's a clever man with a good sense of humour. Anyone who likes Garth Marenghi's Darkplace should watch The Kingdom, which was definitely a big influence on that show (and it's funnier, imo, for purely intentional reasons).

[David Smith]

Only ever seen the stephen king adaptations of The Kingdom available over here, but may see about finding the original series online as i imagine it'll be a lot better

[Evetevet1]

I've watched Big Fish, directed by Tim Burton, yesterday. It is a bit old, from 2003 if I'm not mistaken. It's a good movie and I related myself when I was watching it because the main character was in such a mood:

----spoiler----

There's a time when a man
needs to fight...

...and a time when he needs to accept
that his destiny's lost...

...the ship has sailed,
and that only a fool will continue.

Truth is, I've always been a fool.

----spoiler----

It was weird that I've also watched Shutter Island yesterday and the main character's name was either Edward there.