While greg nibbled on an unhealthy snack/tim roth what films have you watched?

[difficult]

Ah, dear old Alain Tanner... Then you probably emailed Keith Hill? I know he's the characteristic film professor guy with enthusiasm for Tanner in NZ...

Hmm, nope, I don't know Keith Hill. I emailed an old prof of mine from U of Otago who was transplanted a few years ago to Victoria. We're still good friends and he's quite a knowledgeable font. But I love how NZ has like one single enthusiast for each semi-obscure filmmaker. "Oh Keith Hill, he's the Alain Tanner guy". Maybe if I return to the cloudy isles I will try to be New Zealand's Jon Jost enthusiast.
You are from NZ too, difficult?


On topic: just watched Dušan Makavejev's W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism. Sex, communism, and Wilhelm Reich. Yes please!

I am in Wellington. I... used to make stuff, I guess. I think I'm the NZ Phillippe Garrel guy... I don't know anyone as keen as me, anyway. (Although on LPTJ, I'm NZ's Tomokawa enthusiast/ missionary first and foremost)

Jon Jost is a good cause, though I've only seen Last Chants...
Who's your prof guy at Vic?

[andronicus]

I am watching I Am Legend and that bit where he imitates Shrek was hilarious to me, because I've heard Shrek in the neighborhood of 1,000 times as a conservative estimate (because of work), and I do the exact same thing.  My favorite is saying 'You're a monster.' in the Gingerbread Man voice.

[paperclipper]

I am in Wellington. I... used to make stuff, I guess. I think I'm the NZ Phillippe Garrel guy... I don't know anyone as keen as me, anyway. (Although on LPTJ, I'm NZ's Tomokawa enthusiast/ missionary first and foremost)

Jon Jost is a good cause, though I've only seen Last Chants...
Who's your prof guy at Vic?

At first I thought you said that you were NZ's Phillippe Garrel! my my, now that's a man I want to find... Although being the Garrel GUY is also admirable. I think the party/dance scene from Regular Lovers counts for me as the Best Ever rock out dance scene in any movie ever. Maybe.
I like Jost's non-fiction best - Speaking Directly is fucking awesome - his personal rant and "state of the nation" meditation c.1973. Jost comes off as a total dick, but totally compelling. and there's a 5 minute close up cock shot of Jost masturbating with voice over about sexual relations of the era. and other good things.

prof guy is Thierry Jutel, he's now at the Media Studies dept at Vic I think. he's great, and always up for a beer
You make film? do i know you?
i used to be in wellington until end of 2005.

[difficult]

You could do... I'm Campbell, I made Uncomfortable Comfortable, years ago... worked at Aro St video as well for as long time. And you?

[difficult]

Actually come to think of it, I'm probably the only person wanting to be NZ's Phillippe Garrel...

Speaking Directly sounds great too...

[paperclipper]

Oh! you are the person who also made Little Bits of Light then? I actually haven't seen either of them, but a friend gave me a full report on Little Bits of Light a couple of years back. He thought it was ok (picky!), but he said that I would probably love it.

 

[difficult]

Yeah that's me, made it with GCR, who also posts here - we used to be together. Not now. Do I know you then? If you were in Wgtn and watching films, I probably do...

[difficult]

(and if I didn't, it sounds like I should have, from the films you like, unless I pissed you off when drunk at some point)

[paperclipper]

Hmm, no I don't think I ever knowingly met you... I'm sure we closely crossed paths, and I used to rent from Aro vid. But I was only in Wgtn for a year and a bit, and now I'm in the US doing a torturous MFA. Little world - I didn't expect new zealanders to be so well-represented on this board!

[jebreject]

Little Bits of Light is fantastic btw

Anyway, went and saw Iron Man for my birthday. It was way fun, and best boss fight in recent memory.

[diesel_powered]

As mentioned before in another thread, I watched Hitman today. I'd give it a three out of five going in expecting a pointless action movie. I wasn't disappointed, but there were definitely a few slow spots that could have been better spent splattering brains, etc.

[Greg Nog]

Holy shit, I'm Not There was wonderful.

[diesel_powered]

IAWTC.

Continuing my action movie binge, I watched Equilibrium today. I think it puts Christian Bale ahead of Timothy Olyphant on the continuum of action heroes.

[edison]

Holy shit, I'm Not There was wonderful.

?

I saw a bunch of not so great movies lately, the best being Wonderful Town, from one of Weerasetakul's former assistants, in a not altogether different vein, but slightly less impressive. Non pensarci was a decent Italian comedy with a terrible use of pop music which made me want to murder the director about 5 times during the movie, and Gegenüber a bleak, well-done, but somehow not very affecting drama about marital abuse (the wife hits the husband, though, not the other way around).

Word is the new Desplechin is supposed to be really great, so even though I'm not too confident, I might try that Wednesday night.

[Greg Nog]

It's the Bob Dylan biopic that Todd Haynes did, and it's easily my favorite thing he's ever done.  It jumps between six different people who aren't Dylan, but suggest different aspects of him, and each one's shot in a different style.  I thought it was pretty fantastic.

[edison]

Yeah, I know what it is, I was just wondering what you felt was so great about it, because apart from Cate Blanchett's performance and a few other random scenes, I felt the whole thing was kind of vain and bloated (I thought the best illustration of that was that he crammed three or four songs into the closing credits).

[Anne the Man]

I liked I'm Not There fairly well, but at times I felt like I just didn't 'get' it, and it was a bit pretentious. Words cannot express my love for Cate Blanchett though. Wowowowow.

I expected more from Iron Man cos I'd heard people liked it but knew exactly nothing of what it was about. So it was fairly stoopid, but by golly I want one of them thar flying suits bad.

[Greg Nog]

I felt the whole thing was kind of vain and bloated

I can see why someone would think that, but I dunno, I guess vain and bloated are things I don't mind at all.  I was actually thinking, last night, that it struck a lot of the same chords with me that Southland Tales did.  I'll see if I can think through my emotional response more, and try to put into words what I loved about it.

[edison]

I remember thinking that the film might probably have been more exciting to non hardcore-Dylanophiles, as it recycles a lot of stuff or even ideas that anyone who has ever read a bit about Dylan (from straight history to Greil Marcus's wild digressions on "Like a Rolling Stone") knows or has seen expressed in a more convincing manner. I didn't think it was bad, mind you! Just a bit underwhelming, especially given how ambitious it was.

[Andrew_TSKS]

so i saw "i want someone to eat cheese with" last night, which is a movie that jeff garlin (whom some of you will know from "curb your enthusiasm") wrote, directed, and starred in. it's basically about a struggling actor who lives in chicago trying to find love and deal with his weight issues. sarah silverman shows up as a love interest, and basically i thought this whole plotline was gonna go in a WAY different direction than it did. if it had, it would have been an indie-film/sophisticated humor version of a romantic comedy, which is what i expected. instead, it was far better than what i expected, with a real undercurrent of sadness running throughout the movie. i think something that sums up what's going on in the movie is the constant references to "marty". i don't really want to get too into depth with the plot or anything for fear of spoiling it. but i will say that i loved this movie and thought the way it worked out, especially the very end, was perfect. parts of it were fucking hilarious, parts of it were really sad, and the ending was hopeful in an understated manner. seriously above and beyond anything i expected. i would recommend this to anyone, and i would now go see anything that jeff garlin wrote and/or directed.

[Greg Nog]

I remember thinking that the film might probably have been more exciting to non hardcore-Dylanophiles

I am most definitely not a hardcore Dylanophile, so perhaps that's part of it.

[coldforge]

You know, I saw a preview of Cheese With and it looked good. I like the fat guy. I think I was iffy about contributing to any of its success because it's got Silverman in it, but thanks for reminding me. I think I'll go try to steal it somewhere.

[Andrew_TSKS]

hahahah boy do i understand your feelings about sarah silverman. she drives me nuts. such a bitch.

but jeff garlin is awesome and deserves your support.

[lastclearchance]

that movie was alright. the best part was the clip of the marty remake.

[Andrew_TSKS]

yes, that was hilarious! the disconnect between the lines and who was delivering them--classic!