Best Films EverWe love watching films and we're always looking for interesting things to watch - so tell us the best movie you've seen and why you enjoyed it.
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chthonic, Thu 17 Jul 2008, 14:30)
This question is now closed.
Romantic films.Some of you out in B3ta land may have noticed that I am of the lady persuasion, however I am not a great fan of the genre of chick flicks etc. There are a few films though that make the old oestrogen get pumping and tears will usually be squeezed out.
1. Brief Encounter
A black and white movie from the 40's which is about a doomed extra marital affair and totally bereft of any passion but it works somehow. Still makes me cry like a baby at the end. I love the clipped British accents and the way they meet by him, (a doctor), getting some grit out of her eye in a railway cafe. (I've always kept that little ruse at the back of my head for meeting men but never used it).
2. Secretary
One of the most beautiful films I've ever watched. A story of two sexual misfits and their journey to love via some light bondage. I always cry at the end when he picks her up in her soiled clothing, (a wedding dress ?), and carries her away to be bathed. Always gives me the urge for a good spanking also.
3. King Kong (1933 version)
The shit that gorilla goes through to protect and keep Fay Wray always brings a lump to my throat. The love you can see in his eyes for her and the ending where she's the last thing he sees as he dies. Beautiful.
4. ? (Found the film!) It's called Torch song trilogy.
There is a film I saw years ago on the TV about two gay men and their relationship. It had Matthew Broderick in it and the gay Jewish guy from Independance day who runs around screaming for his mother and therapist. As far as I can remember it's about the Jewish guys search for love and I think he dies in the end. All I know is that I cried and cried.
Edit
5. The Truth about cats and dogs.
A very funny and beautiful film that doesn't make me cry but gives reassurance to all the plain women out there that there are guys who value women for their personality and beauty within rather than looks.
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girlinthehole, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 9:01,
3 replies)
And can I also recommend these future classics?Pocahotass
The Loin King
White Men Can't Hump
Crocodile Done Me
Edward Penishands
Schindler's Fist
Beverly Hills Copulator
Ferris Bueller's Jerk Off
Free My Willy
The Shawwank Redemption
Winners, every one.
Pooh to you with nobs on, Tarantino!
(, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 8:34, 7 replies)
The Adventures Of ButtmanJohn Stagliano at his best.
All the scene setting is barely belivable as it is in all good gentlemen's art videos. The scene where Buttman is jerking off to the scene he's just shot (pardon the pun) is the best in post modernist pastiche, capturing the onaniser in silhouette, vigorously polishing his rocket, and even the resulting ejaculate is seen sprouting forth, again in silhouette.
The party scene is especially exquisite. Tracey Adams uses her labia majoris only to guide the male lead's throbbing phallus into her pulsating mauve envelope. The resulting orgy of sexual congress is filmed so closely that it resembles an animated butcher's shop window.
The resulting money shot is both poetic and graceful, a symphony of hot spooge lovingly deposited on his co-stars upturned, gurning visage.
Really, if you're looking for an all-round film to watch with your nearest and dearest on a Saturday night, and yet another showing of "Cheaper By The Dozen" doesnt interest you, you can't go wrong with this televisual feast.
(, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 8:29, Reply)
Just wonderingHas anyone seen "Ichi the Killer"?
Quite the disturbing film if I recall...
(, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 6:36, 3 replies)
Ten movie scenesSeeing a movie as it's meant to be, at the cinema, is going to beat watching it on DVD. It's about who you're with, getting completely immersed in the experience, and, eventually nostalgia. In entirely non-chronological order:
1. Reservoir Dogs, Bracknell. The only time I've ever walked out of the cinema, gone straight back to the desk and bought another ticked to watch it all over again. Remember, this was the first Tarantino movie. The dialogue, the twists, the music, the sheer style. Seeing that without knowing what was coming. The best two hours of my cinema life. The delight at discovering I could still be exhilarated by stuff.
2. Ghostbusters, Basingstoke ABC. The teachers were on strike, several hundred kids laying siege to the front doors of the cinema with nothing evenly vaguely like a queue. Popcorn and crisps flying backwards and forwards in the projection. The kids have taken over the cinema.
3. Candyman, Aldershot. On my own, during the late afternoon, so scared I thought of leaving. Getting into the car in twilight, so affected I looked in the boot to check nobody was hiding there. Later watching it with my girlfriend on DVD, wondering what all the fuss was about.
4. Jeepers Creepers. Balham. Sitting next to the girl I was about to have the best sex of my life with. Both pretending to be scared as an excuse for our first hand holding.
5. Return of the Jedi, Southampton. Arriving ten minutes late, with my dad. Hiding in the cinema when it ended so we could watch the bit that we'd missed.
6 Crash, Camberley. The David Cronenberg one involving people getting off on sex with accident victims, not the more recent one. Watching people leaving the cinema in waves - first the ones who were revolted, then the ones who were bored.
7. Dances With Wolves, the Directors Cut, Bracknell. Getting into a bet at dinner beforehand that I couldn't eat a 64oz steak. Sleeping for the entire four or five hours.
8. Star Trek marathon, also Bracknell. Sneaking in pizza, finally falling asleep during the seventh one.
9. Citizen Cane, Brighton. Putting off seeing it for years, so I could watch it properly at the cinema. Being somewhat disappointed.
10. Casablanca, London. After years of watching it on video, seeing subtleties on the big screen I'd never spotted before. Sly pickpockets, littel details at the back of the room.
Perfect length? 89 minutes.
(, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 6:26, 1 reply)
The Postman Always Rings TwiceYears ago I met a girl in a pub and we got to chatting about movies. I was pretty keen on getting my leg over so I was plying her with alcopop and pretending to be interested in the same films as her. She was ranting on about some arty film noir piece that was playing in the local independent cinema. The Postman Always Rings Twice. I’d heard of it, but to be honest I didn’t give a toss – no helicopters, no explosions, no zombies = must be shit. But I bluffed and bullshitted and bought us another drink. And another. And another. I was really just seeking a cock warmer.
After a while we were getting pretty wasted and I was getting ever hornier. She was boring me shitless banging on about this old movie but she was responding positively to the flirting and the casual forearm touching that was increasing in contact seconds as the drinks went down. After a bit I suggested we go back to mine but she wasn’t up for that just yet. She wanted to go and see this movie. Fucksocks.
So I, ever hopeful, agreed to this. I calculated a grope in the theatre would be on the cards and after the flick we could get down to the serious in and out. Buy tickets we do and seated we get, right up the back. The Postman Always Rings Twice starts up. I’ve got a serious buzz happening from the beers and I’m pretty chuffed to have pulled this chick. I slide my arm across her shoulders and she nestles in. Nice. I give her upper arm a light caress and she snuggles in more and pushes her body against mine lightly but affirmatively. Game on. Just got to make it though this black and white borefest – praying it’s a 90 minute film, not 2 hours.
20 minutes in I’m in a doze and she nudges me and whispers ‘I need to go to the loo’. Me, being all class, replies, ‘Just squat down here and have a wee’. She gives me a funny look but I point out we are right up the back in an almost deserted theatre. She can see the sense in this given her semi drunk state and pulls her knickers down and squats on the floor. Unbelievable! I had only been taking the piss (pun intended) and didn't seriously think she would do it.
Now, I have to admit I am a bit of a twisted perve so this whole scene was really turning me on… her squatted down beside me, a stream of golden urine flowing from her lotus flower... in the local movie theatre no less! Most excellent result. So I lean forward and slide my hand along the back of her neck. She rolls her head appreciatively which is obviously a signal inviting me to reach further and venture down her top - and so I do. No resistance, so all engines forward. I take the other hand and reach down to her heavenly zone.
Muffness should be goodness, lets face it, but unfortunately I quickly discovered things are not right. Distinctly not right. Seriously wrong in fact because I have my hand around something between ‘her’ legs, and it is long and it is hard! Argh! Not good, not at all good. My blood runs cold and my heart rate accelerates to 250bpm. ‘What the fuck?’ I scream. Mostly my voice is internal but some of it comes out my mouth and some comes out my nose, together forming a squeak that pleads for a negative answer but still must ask ‘Are you a tranny?’ I feel like an ice pick has pierced my spine and time hangs while I wait for a response. But I need not have been so disturbed because she looks up at me and replies, ‘No, silly’ and winking coquettishly adds ‘I changed my mind… I’m having a shit instead.’
Been married 14 years and she is lovely.
edit: lies
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enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 6:14,
5 replies)
Fillums eh?I'm a big film fan, so this is like a wet dream for me.... Far too many to mention, but off the top of my noggin'...
Eraser head - oddest film ever.Genius. Fucking scary soundtrack.
Withnail and I - One of the only films i can repeat watch and still laugh.
The Thing - Great effects, great music, loads of paranoia and sense of isolation.
Night of the living dead - classic horror (still far better than any other zombie film except possibly the original dawn of the dead)
Reservoir Dogs - Say no more... Steve Buscemi rules.
Baraka - beautiful, soul warming, eye opening film.
Dead mans shoe's - Best revenge flick ever. Brilliant and quite dark but not without morals.
Big trouble in little china - Classic 80's nonsense, but still watchable, quick witted and plain mental, great one liners and comedy action.
Coffee and cigarettes - Black and white, art house flick, really enjoyed it.
Probably so many more...
(, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 2:45, Reply)
Lynch, Cronenberg, Gilliam, Carpenter, Burton.Brazil - dark, humourous, visually stunning and atmospheric, this is Terry Gilliam at his finest.
Metropolis - an amazing technical feat, given its age, and though the story is simple enough it is beautifully and majestically told. Now that they've recovered a copy of the original cut, it can only get better (a large chunk of the film had been lost).
Crash - David Cronenberg's clinical approach results in a haunting, meticulously paced film with an interesting (certainly different!) view on sex and relationships.
Lost Highway - classic David Lynch, and possibly his most obviously "scary" film with the character of the Mystery Man. Told in his typically unconventional style, the film manages to evoke a wide variety of emotions, even though you'll probably need repeated viewings to really get a grip on what is going on (if there even is such thing as a definitive explanation!) Also has a cracking soundtrack.
INLAND EMPIRE - definitely the most interesting film I've seen in a cinema, this is pure, distilled Lynch. Utterly confusing, beautiful, terrifying, haunting, humourous, bizarre; this is a difficult film to sit through, but it's worth every minute.
As you can probably tell I am a bit of a David Lynch fan; I'd recommend pretty much any of his films, but also any film by David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam, John Carpenter or Tim Burton.
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benryves Now I'm radioactive! That can't be good!, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 2:20,
1 reply)
Event HorizonLaurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Joely Richardson and some other people. If you like sci-fi you'll probably love it. If you like horror you'll probably love it. I like both and thought it was the one of the greatest experiences ever. Plus it rolls the credits with The Prodigy's "Funky shit" which, after seeing the film, makes perfect sense. Fantastic!
(, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 2:15, 3 replies)
HappinessHappiness is twisted, perverted and disturbing and therefore thoroughly recommended. Philip Seymour Hoffman takes a front line role and makes you feel dirty just watching him. Definitely one of my favourite actors. The ending is fantastic too, but I wont ruin it for you.
Check it out - chances are there is a little bit of you in there somewhere even though you wont admit it to anyone else.
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enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 2:06,
Reply)
K-9000: Man's Best Friend ElectricStarring: Chris Mulkey
Catherine Oxenberg
"Chris Mulkey stars as a dedicated cop whose methods of crime prevention often involves spectacular destruction prevents terrorists from stealing K9000 a super-dog with a computer brain as well a rescuing the dogs beautiful creator who alongside Mulkey battle the conspiracy against them and their four legged friend who Mulkey can communicate with thanks to a special electronic device implanted in his ear by accident.
It's action all the way, with violent shootouts as man best friend goes electric!"
From the back of the DVD box, grammar/spelling mistakes n all. Purchased for £1 from Skegness market
Doesn't this film sound like the best film ever?
It might just be, if your definition of 'best film ever' includes:
Music that stops and starts randomly, and has no relation to what's going on onscreen.
Said music also sounds like it was entirely composed on a Casio keyboard from the 80s, despite the film being filmed in 1991.
The film also looks like it was filmed in the 80s in terms of camera quality, and the protagonists haircuts/clothing
Extended sequences of little to no relevence - for example, the protagonist watching TV.
The 'super-dog' being indentical in all respects to a normal alsation - except it 'speaks' in a hilarious 'cyber-voice'..
It's only 89 minutes long, yet it feels like 3 hours.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, the dog has a phone in it's head, into which the lead character speaks.
BEST. FILM. EVER. Many thanks to the fine people at 23rd Century for putting this cinematic classic out!
1000/10
(, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 1:57, Reply)
Go on, argue with me.LOTR. Yes, it's a blockbuster, but it's the look and feel of the thing.
Shaun of the Dead. Real emotions, and real exploding heads.
Eraserhead. Just absolute despair made visible.
Spirited Away. The only film we watch as a family, and then have critical discussion about. Repeatedly. Howl's Moving Castle is also good.
House of Flying Daggers. Jesus, just look at it.
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Seedy Cold War paranoia at its best.
Casino Royale isn't the best film in the world, but it's the first Bond not to insult my intelligence.
The Bourne Trilogy. Proof that Americans can do subtle. Best of its type since Three Days of the Condor.
(, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 0:56, 2 replies)
First?I'm rather glad I didn't go to bed earlier as planned, I just got a call to ask if I want to go to a screening of The dark knight tomorrow...
HELL YES.
Anyone else seen it yet?
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fuck shit up the best you never had, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 0:18,
2 replies)
El Mariachi changed my lifeWell, ok the accompanying book was also a major factor in it (http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-without-Crew-23-Year-Old-Filmmaker/dp/0452271878 if anyone’s interested in reading it), but I honestly accredit this one film with turning my life around at a low point.
I’d just finished film school for the summer and already knew that I’d failed as I just wasn’t interested in the course in the slightest. I didn’t get the grades to go on the course I wanted in the first place, but agreed to try the drama based one that required less points and see how it went, instead of going back to college to resit A levels to get onto the filmmaking course. My friend Alper had been pestering me over and over to watch El Mariachi and then Desperado from this guy called Robert Rodriguez who I’d never heard of and I admit I’d been putting it off in order to watch more poncey French films (to fit in with the poncey French geeks) and Kevin smith films (to fit in with my own kind). So I finally sat down to watch them one night in June 1999 and was totally blown away.
For those who haven’t seen it, El Mariachi is a low budget western about a musician who comes into town and is mistaken for a hitman and has to hide from the guys out to kill him. It’s got elements of a love story, comedy and action. To the casual observer it’s just another low budget straight to video film, but when you know that he wrote, directed and shot all of it himself and on a budget of $7000 – some of which was contributed through him undergoing guinea pig testing for drugs, it makes it so much more compelling to view. I ended up speaking to tutors and going back to finish my degree, but on the course I wanted to in the first place as I hadn’t failed all the courses, just the irrelevant ones like Art history and drama.
Since finishing film school and working in the industry for a while, I can safely say I have no desire to make films for a living, but some of my friends from uni are still out there working hard and providing entertainment for the rest of us and I really respect them for it. None have gone to as many extremes as Rodriguez did for El Mariachi, but one or two have come pretty close.
Edit: If you want to bypass the first year of film school, but still get all the knowledge you’ll need to pass exams, watch the directors commentary of Doug Liman’s ‘Go’ (1999).
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fuck shit up the best you never had, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 23:53,
1 reply)
The only film that's truly touched me......Is the film 'Crash'
Absolutely fantastic.
Gash QOTW by the way.
(, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 23:00, 2 replies)
...I was going to write a list of all my favourite films but I thought that might be boring and no one would want to read it. SO. Instead, I'm going to tell everyone that they should go see WALL.E. May not be the best film ever, but, it's absolutely FANTASTIC. I would try to explain it but I wouldn't be able to without making it sound shit. I will say this though, best film I've seen in a while.
(, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 23:00, 2 replies)
12 Angry MenBecause it's all about great acting and great writing. Henry Fonda is fantastic. If you haven't seen it, get it.
Also, Glengary Glen Ross:
Because it's all about great acting and great writing. And it has the best fucking swearing in a film ever.
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Squid Ink should be stored upright in a cool, dark place, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 22:59,
1 reply)
The IllusionistSee it see it see it.
Great acting, beautiful costumes and sets, a fast-moving plot, and the ending..... It just has to be seen.
Plus it's £4 in HMV right now!!!
Also it has Edward Norton.
See it!
(, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 22:42, 2 replies)
I has been said before butMy Neighbour Totoro.
If you ever visit Tokyo you must go to the Ghibli Museum, assuming you like the films of course.
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Mrs Entity is in hiding., Sat 19 Jul 2008, 22:32,
5 replies)
Boys night infirstly to say that there is life outside darkened rooms, watching endless mindless Dvd's, but on the occasion when a bloke's meaning of life needs re-affirming, stay in and watch th original Rollerball, with James Caan kicking ass, and secondly for pure infantile, boys humour, The sex lives of the potato men, if for nothing else but the immortal line, "Tully, I don't want a sandwich that tastes like linda's twat !"
(, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 21:25, Reply)
Can I just say.........this has been one of the most interesting QOTWs for quite a while.
People's "best... (insert film, album, toenail, root vegetable etc)" is, to me, fascinating and strong indicator of someones personality.
Yeah, I've posted mine (on page 7) and read all posts so far.... love it.
I'm no prude (f*ck no), but surely QOTWs don't ALWAYS have to be about the obscure, risque or border on the illegal - so stop moaning guys - you only have to wait a week at most!!!!
This one has been ace - peace.
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jonbontempi, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 21:24,
Reply)
It's saturday night and there's NOTHING on the telly.But at 9.50pm the film the Chronicles of Riddick is on. I apologise now but hell, even bad sci-fi is better than no sci-fi.
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girlinthehole, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 20:45,
4 replies)
The Ring..... not for the film, for the sheer entertainment value of making a copy of "the tape", and showing it to my little sister.
She actually pissed herself.
Oh yeah, and I guess Bambi springs to mind. When I was a kid, I used to sit with my Grandad all weekend and laugh at horror movies. Imagine the look of terror on my teachers face, when I (aged 6) watched Bambi at school, pissing myself with laughter because I thought it was yet another horror movie.
The kids in my class started crying. My teachers' faces were sheer panic and horror. I had the biggest shit eating smile you have ever seen.
Needless to say, my Grandad was bollocked for that.
(, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 20:40, Reply)
Being stonedand watching your favourite childhood film makes you feel like you're 6 years old again...
...gotta love Jurassic Park for that reason!
One film which I have really fallen for in the last year though is 101 Reykjavik. Saw the film before reading the book but think they're both great.
(, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 20:37, 1 reply)
Casshern!awesome japanese crazyness!
Main character dies at the beginning, brought back to life and OH SHIT! his muscles are expanding so fast they're gonna burst through his skin... lets put him in a suit to hold him together, give him a sword and huzzah! a superhero of sorts, he declares himself god and runs around the awesomely animated world (though he is a real actor) fighting a huge army of robots!
woo!
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giftedweasel forgot what he was going to type on, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 19:55,
Reply)
V for Vendetta.The film, is getting so perilously close to today in the UK. One of the best quotes from the film below, it almost brings tears to my eyes as I wish a similar hero was out there:-
"Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine -- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration - whereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death, or the end of some awful bloody struggle - are celebrated with a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way.
Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth - and the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?
Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well, certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now High Chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.
So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot!"
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SQUID, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 19:33,
7 replies)
Mamma Mia - or Chickenlady the Cynic.Last night Chickenlady and Jo the Best Friend went to the cinema because Jo has recently split up with the Cheap and Nasty Boyfriend (he shoplifted a mat for her and told us about how he took a shit in a shower, but that's another story entirely) so Operation Cheer Up was underway.
We went to see the ultimate in Chick Flicks.
Mamma Mia
I agreed to this because
a)I'm a sucker for Abba songs - it comes of growing up listening to foreign students playing them - my parents used to regularly have students to stay to help make the housekeeping money go a little further.
b)It has Colin Firth in it and I used to have the biggest crush on him years ago when he was in Another Country with Rupert Everett and they had bumsex while in possession of upper class accents and floppy hairdos - ah…public schoolboys, always a weakness of mine…married one…and bumsex….married another one who rather liked that…but that, again, is another story. (Oh, and he didn't like it with me but rather with other likeminded chaps. )
c)It has Julie Walters in it - MRS OVERALL!!! No film can possibly go wrong with the divine Julie in it. She also looks rather like one of my Dad's sisters. And she's supremely funny.
So off I go last night to the local multiplex.
Jo meets me in the foyer. The foyer which is packed to capacity with Women Of A Certain Age and a sprinkling of gay men. Signs are up saying that Mamma Mia is fully booked for the night. Really?
We kiss (on the cheek!) and we go in early - Jo looking suitably sad and wan and me looking slightly precarious on my six inch stiletto heels - yes, I don't know either why I wore them, but they look great with skinny leg jeans and …erm…. They look great.
The auditorium is at bursting point and the air is full of oestrogen, perfume, chocolate, Haagen dazs and giggles. We have the best seats in the house - Jo booked a week ago so extreme was her need to see this.
The lights go down and in between Jo telling me about Cheap and Nasty Boyfriend coming over to return her stuff earlier in the week the ads go on. Then finally the reason we are here….
Opening scene - A young girl singing An Abba Song (sorry, I've forgotten already which one - it could have been 'I have a dream') on a beach.
Jo: Sigh
Chickenlady: Oh shit. It's a full on gay-fest musical. Smile weakly
The story is basically that the fatherless young girl is getting married tomorrow on a Greek Island where she lives with her mother (Meryl Streep) who runs a b&b. The young girl invites three men whom she thinks could be her father – her mother was a bit of a minx as a young woman. The mother’s two best friends also arrive for the wedding.
Every single turn of events was met with an Abba song.
Jo: singing [insert generic Abba song here]
Chickenlady:thinksHmm..Strong female characters. Nice.
A hen night and stag night take place.
Jo: singing [insert generic Abba song here]
Chickenlady: thinksOh, Classical Greek references – Maenads, Aristophanes! Oh, very clever.
The bearded one from Abba appears as a fisherman.
Jo: Oh look! It’s the bearded one from Abba!
Chickenlady:Oh yes, how postmodern.
More singing.
Jo: singing [insert generic Abba song here]
Entire audience: singing [insert generic Abba song here]
Chickenlady: Eeek!
The end of the film – everything is sorted out at the big church scene – everyone is happy and a lovely wedding feast ensues.
More singing.
Jo: singing [insert generic Abba song here]
Entire audience: singing [insert generic Abba song here]
Chickenlady:thinksHow Shakespearean.
The final result on leaving the cinema –
Jo: I feel so much better now. I’m over Cheap and Nasty Boyfriend and I’m off to a ball next weekend, a singles ball.
Chickenlady:That’s great news. thinksDid I miss something?
This has left me thinking that I’m far too cynical. The ladies watching the film sang along and got exactly what theatre was designed for – entertainment and catharsis.
I got a slightly uncomfortable feeling that I’m just not camp enough and clearly I’m far, far too uptight.
All that said….
When it comes out on DVD there will be a Girls’ Night where we’ll all dress up, get royally drunk and sing along….all in the privacy of our own homes.
How English.
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chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 19:22,
5 replies)
Branded To KillI hope I've learned to stop picking favorites by now, but it certainly can't be denied that this film occupies a pretty substantial place in the center of my film universe.
I'm not a person who loves cleverness, I'm not a person who is often successful in 'thinking about what the director is trying to say', I don't give a fuck about logical continuity and I actually think it is the death of cinema incarnate.
I'm a person who loves images, who loves directors who put things on the screen that I never in my life thought were possible with film, I love being challenged, I love being swept away, I love feeling the floor fall out beneath my feet and being lost in a film full of terrifying, sick, amusing, cool, and heart wrenching pieces of film.
I also really love guns, violence, and weird sex acts involving Japanese hit men smelling boiling rice to get hard.
These are just some of the reasons I love one part of Seijun Suzuki's two masterworks: Branded To Kill.
Like Hitchcock and so many other great filmmakers Seijun Suzuki at one point peaked with two great movies that are masterpieces of both sides of his style. With Hitchcock it was Vertigo and then North By Northwest, the directors very dark, abnormal, and emotional transcendent side and then his love of fantasy, adventure, and entertainment. Seijun Suzki mirrored Hitchcock almost exactly, except with more balls.
First came Tokyo Drifter, the quintessence of Suzuki's style as an entertainer, as a man who made films with their own worlds and amazing weird, fun, violent adventures within them. So mad and so weird that his bosses were starting to loose patience with him. Suzuki was supposed to be a B-Unit director, he was supposed to be cranking out mindless yakuza movies but along the way somewhere he got bored and started subverting every single element of his films that he could. His bosses were having none of that and warned him to shape up.
Suzuki then made Branded To Kill. His Vertigo. But with more courage than Hitchcock ever had, more abnormal than anything Hitchcock ever put on screen, more Nihlistic, sexier, more violent, way more visually inventive, way more experimental and eventually way more emotionally transcendent and way more entertaining. I've watched this film maybe 15 times? I've always seen something new. How the fuck you hide so many things in a film, a medium as unambiguous and front and center as any other conceived by man, I have no idea. After the film was released Suzuki was promptly fired and blacklisted from the industry for ten years, banished to television which is where most Japanese people now know him from, as an actor rather than a director.
The man is an enigma worth getting a lot closer to. He's often kind of hailed as a champion of style which always upset me. There's something different going on there. The situation is not helped by how insanely humble this man is, claiming that he makes films becauase that's simply his job and he makes the films he does because it's his job to entertain people. I think this is disingenuous. I think he is maybe a religiously nihilistic person who's ideals tell him that it all means nothing. He was intimately involved in the Japanese side of WWII, and experience he is often quoted as calling "comic", a war which made up for some pretty fucked up citizens after it was over, never mind veterans. I think there's something much different going on in the heart of this man and I think he really needs a Truffaut/Hitchcock style intensive interview done of him before he croaks.
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hanke murphy, I'm a mess, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 19:10,
Reply)
The best film ever made is Labyrinth.No, not "Pan's Labyrinth" (though that is fucking kwalitay)
You can see David Bowie's cock! roflharris!
However, I don't like films that are
+remakes of a book
+remakes of a previous film
+a sequel of a previous film
+a prequel of a previous film
+a remake of a comic book
+a remake of a shit 70s tv show
+a remake of an amusement park ride (wtf)
+a spinoff of a shit tv show where some horsey old slags talk about shoes
A film that is one of these just oozes laziness on the part of the filmakers. Think of most modern blockbusters and it is likely they are one of the above.
Does it not make you weep for the demise of Western culture? (No? OK-watevs)
(, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 18:41, Reply)
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