What's the last movie you've seen?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Can't stand Loach, for the most part. I will make an exception for Kes.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Can't stand Loach, for the most part. I will make an exception for Kes.

Haha, somehow I could almost guess. Why not? Is it overdoing it?

My cultural tastes are utterly predictable, yes.

This will be less than entirely coherent... but... leaving aside some serious issues I have with Realism with a capital 'R' (and Loach is, and always has been, absolutely a proponent of that), much of Loach's work tends to present a particular picture of working class life and claims that this picture is an essentially accurate portrait of reality (and, thus, we must overthrow the system comrades, etc). But I come from a working class background and do not really recognise working class life (or working class values, actually) as depicted by Loach. Not just because he tends to display the traditional tendency to just focus on the most deprived elements (which is still deeply problematic, given his obvious goals), but because he removes the things that make life bearable. And it's those things, and not the 'objective class position' or whatever piece of pseudomarxist jargon seems appropriate, that have always defined working class identity and cultural life. His work is strikingly humourless, for example. So a vision of reality that is actually profoundly unrealistic. And because of that (and the claims that go with it, whether said or unsaid), deeply patronising. Or, to put it in a somewhat clearer (and certainly shorted), way, I think that Loach frequently dehumanises working class people in order to make political points about class and the capitalist system through the medium of film. Which is the point at which you remember who his work is actually made for...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've not seen Looking for Eric (not even any bits of it, actually) so accept that it might be an exception in the way (well, presumably not in quite the same way) that Kes is.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Singing Detective. BBC mini series, that is.

What did you think of the teacher?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Singing Detective. BBC mini series, that is.

What did you think of the teacher?

Not hot.

You would rather be greased by a different character?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

BBC4 just showed Flammen & Citronen and, as I had nowt better to do, I watched. Actually quite good.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Phantom Menace 3D
AWWWWEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOMEEEEEEEEEEE!

Please leave this forum at once.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Finally got around to seeing The Tree of Life. Outstanding. Admittedly it is the sort of thing that I'll always like and I can see why others might have a lower opinion and all that, but, meh. Oddly enough the best thing about it wasn't any of the obvious things, but the general feeling of sincerity, something that isn't as common culturally as it once was.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Four year old me would like to point out that dinosaurs are never a bad thing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Shut up.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Also, it will please Al to hear that I finished The Singing Detective. Really cool series - I loved it.

I be glad to hear thou didst like it, old butt.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Well, I was glad for the subtitles when they did the childhood bits.

Did they translate them in the same way as the rest of it?

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Mr Hall is hilarious and (regrettably) so true.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Russian Ark. Insane. Gloriously, gloriously, gloriously insane, and something else added to that already rather too long list of personal favourites...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Shore was shown on BBC4 a few hours ago and I watched it thinking that even if bad it'd only be half an hour wasted. And quite liked it; a basically sweet (but never cloying) little story that had a certain something and also some fantastic acting.

entertains and enlightens (like most foreign films). 

I take it that you have not been introduced to the tender mercies of Sex Lives Of The Potato Men.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anyway, my last film was Network. Amazing. And felt scarily modern.

So you and Gully agree on something now?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Glad to hear that, old butt.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Finally got around to watching The White Ribbon. Good stuff. Speaking as someone who grew up in Shropshire, I did laugh (knowingly) at the key role of a Harvest Festival in both village life and the general multi-layered trauma that made up the plot.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Also very reminiscent of a pretty good Bergman film (or at least I thought so, no one else has so far agreed with me ).

Psychological torment plus a feel for landscape. Yeah, I can see that.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Caché ('Hidden'). Fantastic.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Finally got around to seeing Badlands. Loved it.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Finally got around to seeing Badlands. Loved it.

I haven't seen that one but probably should. Have you seen The Tree of Life?

Of course.