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So Saturday night I was doing the late night ushering shift, fortunately we had a showing of 2001 after everything else ahd finished - meaning I could sit in and watch while getting paid bonus late rate. It was on the largest screen and watching as such made me feel like I'd not seen it before. The true cinematography of it, the careful composition of the shots, the spectacular set design, all the detail which is so good it looks effortless, just came to life. The special effects were achieved using some real innovation, a truly creative lateral thinker Kubrick, he uses rooms that can rotate upside down to achieve the effect of no gravity, I laughed at his idea of the future though, where we had a Hilton in low-orbit, still with lipstick ladies serving 50's gentlemen scotch and America is still fighting the Russians. I enjoyed how he used natural sound and big orchestral pieces in contrast from scene to scene; There would be long scenes of quiet followed by 30 men singing rising notes of dischord. The plot made little sense, but it was still a beauty to behold.
Yesterday I watched Alphaville, which I have mixed feelings about. It's style doesn't match it's content to the point of making it feel awkward and disjoint. A film noir set in the future city of Alphaville, a technocentric city of oppression. The set and wardrobe reflects none of the things the film is about, which unnerves all the way through. They speak of machines and robots and a futurescape that does not surround them. I like the innovative cinematography, but feel that this plot did not carry it well at all.
Today I watched Milarepa, a strange and bittersweet tale of Tibetan Buddhist legend. It left me very thoughtful. One quote struck me "enemies are in the mind, just learn to control the mind". It's set me to reading about Buddhism - contains some interesting ideas! The film was well shot, and like Cave of the Yellow Dog, showed sign of much local cooperation and improv, allowing the true richness of culture to show without needing to be overt.
Killed a whole morning using Allmovie.com. It's very comprehensive and extensive cross-referencing database means you can find a film like another film in any given way you like. You can see top however many films by country, keyword, date, genre, each film has a list of films it is like, good descriptions, an easy to use rating system. In addition it has educational area with essays, glossaries, and quick guides - again all sorted and cross-referenced. :)
I was able to find some things of interest to watch, read about their genres, critiques, see their body of work in a glance and note similar films.
Decided that French New-wave was not for me, no matter how pretty the girls. Jean-Luc Goddard can keep his "cool". Nabbed Alphaville though, as it's supposed to be Tech-Noir psychological sci-fi, will give it a go. Got Wim Wenders - Wings of Desire, for it's high-concept fantasy exploration of the ideas involving supernatural protective forces (eg- guardian angels); Got Breaking the Waves as it's a Lars Von Trier I've not seen, and he's always great.
This is the first post for my film blog. Decided I spend just as much time watching and enjoying film as I do music, so for anyone interested in my journeys through cinema I'll post my thoughts here.
Today I continued working my way through "Top 100 Animated Shorts from 1906 to 2006", got some what sidetracked after watching Jan Svankmeyer's short Moznasti Dialogu, as it impressed me and hence I watched the feature-length Lunacy. Svankmeyer works with stop-motion, using very textured small items to represent larger items such as people or a concept, frequently using food and adding rich sounds over the top to make mundane things so alive and almost obscene.
I'm still working my way through Soderbergh's back catalogue. Having recently watched Kafka and Schizopolis.
Would like to recommend Starpulse website, simply for the whole "Similar Movies:" function. Excellent way to find new films based on what you like or would like more of. :)
