What's the last movie you've seen? (2nd thread)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The original version of Funny Games. I tend to share the prejudices of the director over the issue at hand, so I thought it was great.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

How disturbing is it? I've just seen the identical trailers for his German version and English version and just that creeped me out...

I thought The White Ribbon was absolutely fantastic but the Piano Teacher, while undoubtedly good, was just too much for me...

The answer is 'incredibly so'. Obviously you have the famous bit with the remote control and the long scene when Peter and Paul have temporarily left the house, but there's also a part where one of the intruders is calmly making himself something to eat in the kitchen, while a gun goes off and there is screaming; and you can tell from the screaming that it's the child that's been shot.

Edit: and that's without considering the overall feel of the thing. The fact that it is very purposefully a construction actually makes it more nightmarish, I think.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Michael Haneke's adaptation of The Castle. Amazing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Amour. Remarkable piece of work - properly complex, genuinely sad (in a way that never relies on cloying sentimentalism) and a lot of true things going on - and very much worth watching. The characters of Georges and Anne were very familiar on a personal level, though obviously that won't be true of everyone.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yeah, the sex abuse case is ancient news. There's a lot to it, no one approves of it, but there is a book coming out soon, if it's not already out, by the lady who it concerned. She has asked on many occasions after the civil suit was filed in the middle '80s that it be tossed. Old news, and certainly nothing to connect to his work.

That's an absolutely and utterly despicable attitude.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

By which, to get in before any random attempt at misrepresentation is made, I mean lines such as 'the sex abuse case is ancient news' and so on and so forth. I don't mean that people that like Polanski's work are automatically absolutely and utterly despicable, even if I would reject the idea that you can ever entirely separate someone's work from them themselves. Anyway, I suspect the poster in question would take a very different line if Polanski were a bishop or something.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Illusionist/L'Illusionniste

On my 'to watch' list since it came out and it didn't disappoint; really quite, quite wonderful.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A Field in England

Wonderful.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What she actually needs to do is take acting lessons.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Also Amour.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

La Strada

Amazing film.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Kind Hearts and Coronets was on the telly so I watched it. Very much of its period (though with some amusing punchlines, particularly the last one), but Alec Guinness as the entire octet of murder victims remains monstrously fun and the film is worth watching just for him. And with that, I bid thee farewell for the year. Try not to get too appallingly drunk, kiddies.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A movie from 2008 or so called In Bruges. It's about the . . . well, darkly weird misadventures of a couple of Irish hit men who get out of town for a spell to Bruges. They encounter various stereotypes and crack jokes about their boss, who goes out of his way to swear (Joe Pesci does that best of all, but this guy was mildly humorous). And there's of course violence.

It was a good movie that had its moments, but honestly the kind of humor in the movie really doesn't do a lot for me. I'd recommend it, but there's a lot of random stuff and smart-alecky tongue-in-cheek humor that had me thinking, "Was that supposed to be funny? Oh, I guess. Ha!"

It's a postmodern anti-violence film.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Consequences of Love. Brilliant film.