what are you watching today?

[fattybfat]

today i was watching yesterday opening ceremony

[designersheep]

I've been watching crazy amount of films lately thanks to the annual film fest and other sources of acquiring rare films. Here's what I've seen during the last couple of months (excluding the ones I've already posted; The Third Part of the Night would be counted as one of the best).

The best of the bunch:

A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang)

The Young One (Luis Bunuel) - A rare non-surreal piece by Bunuel about pedophile racist. The film disguises itself with a conventional progression, but leaves with a bitter taste and a lot to ponder.

The Mother and The Whore (Jean Eustache)

Night and Day (Hong Sang-Soo) - The master of awkward situations and embarrassing moments returns with one of his funniest. My favourite from Hong so far.

Buda as sharm foru rikht (Hana Makhmalbaf) - Clips of Taliban Buddha bombing bookend the film, which I hated because its visual impact outweighs any subtleties and themetical ambiguities the film otherwise had going on. Other than that, the film is yet another Iranian film that transcends the medium by reinventing the cinematic language and conventions and so rich with childlike innocence and purity. Hana Makhmalbaf outdoes her father in this one.

Great:

The Song of Sparrows (Majid Majidi)

Vai E Vem (Joao Cesar Monteiro)

Hunger (Steve McQueen)

The Sword of Doom (Okamoto Kihachi)

The Idiots (Lars Von Trier) - Von Trier creates a film about people bringing out their inner idiots to reach the ultimate bliss. To me this film was Von Trier being an idiot himself by coming up with that idiotic Dogme 95 manifesto and making a film that reaches the ultimate whatever. He failed, just like the idiots in the film, yet the ride was enjoyable and it's unlike anything else.

Good:

Black Sun (Gary Tarn)

Manji (Masumura Yasujo)

The English Surgeon (Geoffrey Smith)

Alexandra (Aleksandr Sokurov)

The Man From London (Bela Tarr) - This was actually a huge disappointment for me, but I had to put it here because of the numerous technical brilliance (scene compositions) and the atmosphere. Intentional or not, I couldn't stand the dubbing, and why would you hire an English actress to play a French when some Hungarian is playing a detective from London. To me, none of the psychological struggles on guilt, as suggested by critics who 'liked' the film, came true likely due to the fact that any meaningful emotional contents were lost in the dub and the irritatingly out-of-sync lips.

Bad:

Eri Eri rema sabakutani (Aoyama Shinji) - Aoyama Shinji's Eureka was just ok. All of his other films I've seen so far felt like inferior renditions of the same film. Nothing new themetically and technically. Btw, the noise music was pretty interesting.

Cremaster 1 (Matthew Barney)

Harakiri (Kobayashi Masaki)

Romance of Astrea and Celadon (Eric Rohmer)

Red Balloon / White Mane (Albert Lamorisse)

Stellet licht (Carlos Reygadas) - I don't want to spoil anyone so I won't mention any exact details here, but I hated this film not because of its pacing (which a lot of people had problems with), but because of the similarity between its climactic part of the plot and to the film Reygadas was giving tribute to, which immediately lowered its own status to an inferior copy of that other film.

Cassandra's Dream (Woody Allen)

Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry)

My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar Wai)

Sukiyaki Western Django (Miike Takashi)

The Duchess of Langeais (Jacques Rivette)

To Each His Cinema (var. dir.)

edit: added imdb links for the first 10 films.

[Eccles]

[riskyrukus]

Bill 'the Butcher' Cutting on the history channel

[SamG]

[keagan]

I gotta start doin this more. on the day i do decide to do it im watching the korine flick...

hA!

[keagan]

oh, last nite i watched more hartley;

i fucking hate the guy but i've seen 90% of his stuff just in the last 3 months. i think i talked a lot about him in this thread

[keagan]

and then like thursday nite i saw

in a theater here. which was odd to see a indie film in spokwnaeanekaw ahhwashignton

this was so bad it prompted me to watch the above

[keagan]

lolol

match factory girl[[[[ by a guy who i've neever seen

[jasutek]

[mpcec]

[shekki]

[FR33]

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[Handlethevibe]

[polishmike]

[maxlin]

[thaiison]

[aak]

[trial]

Worth watching?

[Guest jmatsu]

[thaiison]

[evisu 2000]

the runaway pistol

[Klangspiel]

sgNj2Sf_mgo

[keagan]

was this good?

[__CB__]

earlier:

possibly later:

[trial]

Bob Saget Roast on comedy central.

[alexryb]

Finally saw this..

Waited far too long.

[sistersuzie]

Some skateboard competition on T.V.

skateboarders are cute sometimes

[jimmyc]

skateboarders are cute sometimes

[Guest jmatsu]

haven't watched this in like 10years or something. was still as good if not better than i remembered.