DVD Talk Forum - 5th Annual Criterion Challenge

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Travis McClain

09-29-13 06:36 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Last night, I visited Harlan County U.S.A. From my Letterboxd diary:

Spoiler:

Quote:

I'm a native Kentuckian, but it would be disingenuous for me to insinuate that I grew up around the coal mining part of the state. Still, you do grow up acutely aware that you live in a state where this is the way of life for a lot of your metaphorical neighbors. You discuss their socio-economic plight in social studies, and the nature of coal mining in science. Classmates have grandfathers who were miners. You hear about these things in music, like when Dwight Yoakam included "Miner's Prayer" on his debut album, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. The point is, even when you've never set foot near a mine, you absorb some of that culture.

So it was that when I finally sat down to watch Harlan County U.S.A., I wasn't shocked the way that I'm sure a lot of viewers over the years were. The key theme that I don't recall having been emphasized in my classroom studies of such things, though, was how important were the women in this strike. We always heard about striking miners and what they wanted, but I don't recall it ever being discussed how integral to the success of the strike were the women; wives and mothers who put themselves in harm's way on the picket line even as the men they represented slacked off and didn't even show up for themselves!

Paul Arthur put it succinctly in his essay, <a href=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/422-harlan-county-usa-no-neutrals-there>Harlan County USA: No Neutrals There</a> for The Criterion Collection:

<blockquote>Kopple clearly demonstrates how the political resonates through the deeply personal, gendered tasks of child rearing and other domestic chores in the daily lives of miners’ wives. However, these women are also shown taking vital leadership roles: organizing picket lines, forming support committees, and directly confronting the violence of scabs and company thugs.</blockquote>

It would be going too far for me to claim any meaningful solidarity with these miners, or even their descendants underground as I write about this documentary in my cozy suburban setting, but I think it reasonably fair to at the very least liken my reaction to watching and cheering on the Cincinnati Reds, my favorite baseball team. I'll never be a ballplayer myself (my one year of Little League was not good), but just as millions of sports enthusiasts across the world, I have a specific kind of vicarious identification with the team.

I think part of my attraction to rooting for Team Miners is that I cannot think of a harsher line of work. Coal mining is synonymous with black lung disease, and when was the last time any other vocation was best represented by a disease unique to its labor force? That's hardcore.

What could possibly lure an entire region, generation after generation, into that misery? It's always easy on the outside to shrug off someone else's plight and smugly suggest things like "If they don't like it, they should do something else". Trying to understand why so few ever could just "do something else" has long been at the heart of not just my philosophical relationship with mining, but my views on capitalism and socio-economics.

Anti-labor rhetoric historically demonizes workers as some combination of greedy and lazy, and here is where coal miners are the greatest counterargument. Whatever they get paid, it ain't enough! You can say multi-millionaire athletes are greedy or lazy when they threaten to strike, but you can't say that about miners. In fact, that's one of the implicit points of Harlan County U.S.A. that's the most powerful: These men and women endured all the hardships and abuses of their strike...so that they could return to the hardships of mining.

Think about that.

Being on strike for ten months was probably the healthiest, most rewarding time in the lives of these miners and their families, whom they finally got to actually see on a regular basis. I wish Barbara Kopple had showcased more of how different families handled the strike. It would have been interesting to learn, for instance, what (if any) impact the strike had on things like marriage, divorce, and birth rates.

We only see the impact of the strike on two families: The murder of Joseph Yablonski, his wife and daughter, by UMWA president Tony Boyle's hired assassins, and Lawrence Jones, a miner killed by a strike-breaker. Jones left behind a 16 year old widow and a 5 month old daughter. Think about that: A 16 year old widow with a 5 month old daughter.

And all of this strife for what? So that Duke Energy's shareholders could bask in a 107% increase in profits while the miners struggled with just a 4% increase in pay...in the face of 7% increase in cost of living expenses?

On a peripheral, but personal note, I was thrilled to find in the booklet for the Criterion DVD I was able to borrow from the Campbell County Public Library through the inter-library loan system a second essay, The Sound of Harlan County U.S.A., penned by Jon Weisberger. Back in the days when AOL provided USENET access, I connected with people like Jon and Patsi Bale Cox on the forum, rec.music.country.western.

After AOL stopped providing that access, most of the group regulars fell off. This was before social media really came along and I regret to say I lost contact with those folks. Jon was always thoughtful and passionate, and one of the good guys of Internet discourse. I'm sure it was a particular thrill for him to get to write this essay for this DVD release. I wish Criterion.com made it available to readers online.

Harlan County U.S.A. entered my Flickchart at #237/1578

Harlan County U.S.A.
-X- 1970 (1976)
-X- 301-350 (#334)
-X- Language: English
-X- Theme: America, America
-X- Theme: Cut!
-X- Theme: Documentaries
-X- Theme: First Films
-X- Theme: Independent American Cinema
-X- Theme: Oscar Winners
-X- Essay: Harlan County U.S.A: No Neutrals There by Paul Arthur
-X- Essay: The Sound of Harlan County U.S.A. by Jon Weisberger
1/10 List: Susie Bright's Top 10

Travis McClain

09-29-13 12:27 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Finally met Mon oncle Antoine this morning. From my Letterboxd diary:

***SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE READING EMAIL***

Spoiler:

Quote:

<blockquote>"What is most extraordinary about Jutra’s masterpiece is that even for the spectator who knows nothing about Québécoise history and is oblivious to the film’s allegorical meaning, it can still be appreciated as one of the most touching and endearing coming-of-age stories ever made, in Canada or elsewhere."

- André Loiselle, <a href=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/518-mon-oncle-antoine-of-asbestos-mines-and-christmas-candy>Mon oncle Antoine: Of Asbestos Mines and Christmas Candy</a></blockquote>

Loiselle's essay surveys Québécoise history of the mid-20th Century, from the 1940s (when the film is set) through the early 1970s (when the film was made). I confess, my own grasp of Canadian history is minimal (okay, non-existent) and I was mindful of that ignorance throughout the film. I was certain that I was missing a lot of symbolism that would have been blatantly obvious to those who knew what was being referenced.

Yet, as Loiselle noted, even despite knowing I didn't know what things meant, I was able to follow and appreciate the film on its superficial level as a coming-of-age story. For instance, I found myself smiling at the scenes of the villagers making merry in the general store, content to watch everyone tease and drink.

It was, of course, pretty obvious that somehow death was going to connect Benoit to Jos Poulin by way of Antoine, the undertaker. But I give credit to director/co-writer Claude Jutra and co-writer Clément Perron for keeping the narrative interesting rather than allowing it to annoyingly try to delay the inevitable. Everything that happens is intimated in the first ~10-15 minutes, following a course of development that manages to be organic where it could easily have instead fallen flat as perfunctory.

Just as obvious as how death would unite those characters was the question we're meant to ask: "What now?" Every plot point, from how the Poulin family will cope with not just the death of their son but his body having been lost, to how anyone will reconcile the affair between Cecile and Fernand, is left unresolved. We take our leave before any of these things are addressed, and that lack of resolution, Loiselle explained, reflected the uncertainty of Québécoise politics and identity.

Sometimes that approach to storytelling is "too cute" and banal, but here it works because, as I've said, the narrative here plays out organically. A chief reason for that is the pervasive verisimilitude. Loiselle devotes an entire paragraph to crediting co-writer Clément Perron for that. Because we recognize these characters and their situations as so true to life, we almost don't need to see what comes next. We can speculate a handful of likely outcomes, eliminating the more fantastic ones, and then at some point realize that what happened next isn't even all that relevant. How we got there is what mattered, and that's why Mon oncle Antoine works.

Mon oncle Antoine entered my Flickchart at #414/1579

Mon oncle Antoine
-X- 1970 (1971)
-X- #401-450 (#438)
-X- Language: French
-X- Theme: Blue Christmases
-X- Theme: Growing Pains
-X- Essay: Mon oncle Antoine: Of Asbestos Mines and Christmas Candy by André Loiselle
1/10 List: Susie Bright's Top 10

Travis McClain

09-29-13 06:51 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Continuing with my end-of-challenge big push, I just survived Der Fangschuss [Coup de grâce]. From my Letterboxd diary:

***SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE READING EMAIL***

Spoiler:

Der Fangschuss [Coup de Grâce]
-X- 1970 (1976)
-X- #151-200 (#192)
-X- Language: French
-X- Language: German
-X- Explore People: Volker Schlöndorff
-X- Theme: New German Cinema
-X- Essay: Coup de grâce: Excerpted from Volker Schlöndorff’s Cinema: Adaptation, Politics, and the "Movie-Appropriate" by Hans-Bernhard Moeller and George Lellis

shadokitty

09-29-13 07:16 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

For those who are interested and may not get Hulu Plus, it seems all of the Zatoichi movies on Hulu are available without Hulu Plus.

mrcellophane

09-29-13 08:31 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Today, I watched Ozu's There Was a Father and really enjoyed it. The film follows the relationship between a father and son who are largely kept apart by sense of guilt and duty. Ozu has a way of dealing with potentially trite or melodramatic subject matter in a way that feels natural and beautiful. He is fast becoming one of my favorite directors.

Mondo Kane

09-29-13 11:11 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mondo Kane (Post 11846757)

Holiday was the only one that I've liked. But I thought Jour de fête and even Illusionist were wonderful. So maybe I just perfer Tati when he's not Hulot. But we'll see how this one goes...

Welp, I'm glad to report that Trafic ended up being a nice surprise! I could see how some die-hards willl say that this is Tati's weakest film, but (For me) what sets this one apart from the others is that this particular film just keeps on moving....Beneffiting from being a road-movie probably helps out, of course.

LJG765

09-30-13 12:21 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by pacaway (Post 11850224)

You could try The River. It is also set in India.

I'll have to remember that one for next year!

I've pretty much wound down on movie watching for the challenge. I've run out of Criterions to watch and there's no more time to pick any up before the end of the month. I think I did pretty good...All but 2 or 3 were first time watches. I even found a couple that I really enjoy and plan on adding to my collection.

Comparing to last year, I really did well-I even finished the checklist!

Ash Ketchum

09-30-13 05:39 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrcellophane (Post 11852999)

I saw THERE WAS A FATHER in June at the Film Forum's Ozu retrospective (in Manhattan). What struck me about it was the way it was made during the war but kept the propaganda to a minimum. Here are the notes I wrote afterward:

Quote:

I looked for signs of WWII propaganda in it. At one point the father berates the son for wanting to quit his teaching job and move to Tokyo to live with his father. He tells him that his job is his mission in life and he should ignore private feelings. “Think about your country.”
Yet I can’t help but feel there’s a subtle critique in there, that the extended separations of father and son do more harm than good. That Ozu wishes they had lived together. As propaganda, those sentiments are in one scene. And they’re very subtle.

Contrast this with Kurosawa's THE MOST BEAUTIFUL (1943), a blatant piece of war propaganda that opens with the workers chanting this sentiment:
“Today we will do our best to help destroy America and Britain”

Of course, as soon as the war ended, Kurosawa did a 180 and made an anti-war film that greatly pleased the American occupation officials, NO REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH. As Kurosawa put it in his autobiography (taken somewhat out of context):

Quote:

I don’t know if this represents Japanese adaptability or Japanese imbecility. In either case, I have to recognize that both these facets exist in the Japanese personality. Both facets exist within my own personality as well.

I have no corresponding quote from Ozu; he didn't leave much of a paper trail.

Travis McClain

09-30-13 06:37 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrcellophane (Post 11852999)

Today, I watched Ozu's There Was a Father and really enjoyed it.

I watched that one year ago today, cramming to complete the checklist (as I'm going to do today!). My reaction was a lot less enthusiastic than yours or Ash's. Here's what I wrote at the time:

Spoiler:

Quote:

This is considered a companion piece to Ozu's 1936 film, <a href=http://letterboxd.com/travissmcclain/film/the-only-son/>Hitori musuko [The Only Son]</a>. Several themes and even specifics are recycled but this time the story follows a father and son, and the emphasis is on the divide between them caused by the father's unfailing work ethic.

I confess, I didn't get into this one. I had an uncle who drowned as a teen a few years before I was born, and that cast quite a shadow in my family. I grew up with a pronounced understanding of the frailty of life and a strong belief that while work should be done professionally, it should not be more important than investing one's time in the relationships that really matter. There's also my own estranged relationship with my dad, which makes me particularly antipathetic toward father/son stories.

At the conclusion of The Only Son, we're left with the idea that perhaps the next generation will enjoy the fruits of the labors of the parents. Though the characters and stories follow different tracks, they converge on the same ultimate point: to do right by one's family. In The Only Son, this means living up to one's potential; in There Was a Father, it means carving out time for one's family. Taken as a duology, the theme plays out very clearly and touchingly though, as I've indicated, I was much less taken with this film than with its predecessor.

One last throwaway note: I couldn't help but to feel a strong sense of a gay subtext to this one. Hirata particularly seems to have some kind of unspoken attraction for Horikawa. There are numerous looks between the two, and then there's the ambiguous description at their reunion dinner of a going away party Hirata threw for Horikawa. Also, Ryohei seems to have little interest in Fumiko and even his relationship with his father seems to veer away from outright hero worship and into a sort of odd longing. Maybe this isn't in the film at all and I'm just coming to it with too much Fat Girl and In the Realm of the Senses swirling about my head.

Quote:

Ozu has a way of dealing with potentially trite or melodramatic subject matter in a way that feels natural and beautiful. He is fast becoming one of my favorite directors.

Despite my unenthusiastic reaction to this specific film, I would wholeheartedly agree with you about Ozu's light touch. I was going to stream Floating Weeds/Story of Floating Weeds for my box set fallback, but I really want to watch that with the Roger Ebert commentary so I'll hold off until I can get hold of it on disc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ash Ketchum (Post 11853565)

I saw THERE WAS A FATHER in June at the Film Forum's Ozu retrospective (in Manhattan). What struck me about it was the way it was made during the war but kept the propaganda to a minimum.

Great point, and one that I think if I hadn't been trying to cram in three movies and a short film that day, I might have thought to have made note of that myself. I read the acknowledgements in the film of the war to be more matter-of-fact than even propaganda. No doubt, the theme of professionalism superseding the personal taps into the burden of war on a society, but I had the sense that the war background suited Ozu's story more than the other way around. That is, he'd have made the film much the same way during peacetime if he'd gotten to it then instead of during the war.

Trevor

09-30-13 07:58 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

I've only watched a couple films all month, lots of strife and drama in the house lately, but will try to take advantage of the double Challenge crossover time and fit in a couple horror films tonight.

Sometimes I miss my old life.

Greg MacGuffin

09-30-13 10:12 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 11853621)

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li...t%20feel%20bro

shadokitty

09-30-13 10:29 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Just revisited Jason and the Argonauts. Ray Harryhausen was a genius, and I never tire of watching his movies. Luckily I have some Harryhausen movies that apparently count for the upcoming Horror Movie Challenge.

Travis McClain

09-30-13 11:50 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Finally saw City Lights. From my Letterboxd diary:

Spoiler:

Quote:

During last year's Criterion Challenge, I finally saw my first Charlie Chaplin feature, <a href=http://letterboxd.com/travissmcclain/film/the-idle-class/>The Idle Class</a> and the short, <a href=http://letterboxd.com/travissmcclain/film/the-circus/>The Circus</a>. I was resoundingly unimpressed by either, but I was eager to go see City Lights in a midnight screening when it played at Baxter Avenue Theater in February, but that night I felt miserable and didn't make it. Having finally now seen the film, I'm even more annoyed that I missed that screening because I really enjoyed it.

There are two key aspects that did not work for me, though. First and foremost is the Viennese doctor who could "cure" blindness. I'll grant that the nuances of ophthalmology are more complex than a slapstick comedy can generally afford to navigate and that A Blind Girl's condition may actually have been treatable at the time, etc. It's *possible*. But presenting a "cure for blindness" rankled me just the same, as no such thing exists even now, 82 years later.

The other issue, of course, was An Eccentric Millionaire. That guy very clearly has some serious mental health issues and it pains me to see those kinds of things played for laughs. However, I have to admit that, whether because of the way Harry Myers played him or because of how Chaplin shot the picture, I recognized in this character something of myself. If I had the kind of money to indulge my whims that this guy had, my melancholy and spontaneous needs for excitement would very likely play out just as his did. I can't, therefore, in good conscience condemn An Eccentric Millionaire as a character who only undermines mental health patients like myself.

The relationship between the Tramp and the aforementioned Blind Girl is predictable, but that final scene is such a sweet payoff that it works. What I found really spot-on here, though, is the slapstick. Slapstick wears thin for me quickly if not done well, and I give Chaplin credit for having a keen awareness of pace. One of my chief complaints about The Idle Class and The Circus is that a lot of the physical humor was tediously repetitive.

Here, though, gags don't often outlive their cleverness. I got a laugh out of the Tramp appreciating a painting and statue in a storefront window, for instance, obliviously stepping all around an opening in the sidewalk behind him. Just when it could have easily become annoying, Chaplin does something different to keep it lively. Having gotten our laughs, he wraps it up and gets on with the narrative. It doesn't feel like filler here the way such scenes have felt in other movies, and that energy is a big reason why I think City Lights works so well.

City Lights Entered My Flickchart at #677/1582

City Lights
-X- 1920/1930 (1931)
-X- 650-700 (#680)
-X- Theme: Comedies
-X- Theme: Silent Cinema
-X- Theme: Tearjerkers

Trevor

09-30-13 08:12 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Here is Travis' earlier list of titles that double count right now:

Antichrist
The Blob
Blood for Dracula
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Carnival of Souls
Carrie
Cat People
Corridors of Blood
Cronos
The Devil's Backbone
Diabolique
Empire of Passion
Equinox
Eyes Without a Face
Fiend Without a Face
First Man into Space
Flesh for Frankenstein
Genocide
Geometria
Ghostbusters
Godzilla
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell
Halloween
The Haunted Strangler
Haxan
House
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Island of Lost Souls
Jigoku
King Kong
Kuroneko
Kwaidan
The Living Skeleton
The Night of the Hunter
Onibaba
Peeping Tom
The Phantom Carriage
Repulsion
Rosemary's Baby
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Se7en
The Silence of the Lambs
Sisters
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
The Uninvited
Vampyr
The Vanishing
Videodrome
White Dog
X from Outer Space

Travis McClain

09-30-13 08:24 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

^ You can add Eraserhead to that list. It's in the HuluPlus collection. I may watch that in the next several hours myself, actually. I'm down to just three check marks remaining: Title not released on DVD, completed box set/top 10 list, and soundtrack.

I really screwed myself by not more aggressively working on Susie Bright's Top 10 list before my two inter-library loan requests came in. I think my best bet now is to stream I Am Curious- Yellow and I Am Curious - Blue. Which should be fun because I'm given to understand they're a bit on the cerebral/trippy side anyway and I'm medicated at present.

I just watched two interviews from the DVD edition of Two-Lane Blacktop. Both are interviews conducted by director Monte Hellman. One is with James Taylor, who starred as The Driver, and the other is with Kris Kristofferson. Kris originally tried to be cast in the film, but Hellman mentions in their interview that at the time they made the film, he was very literal-minded that actors be the same age as their characters. The gem of the whole thing, though, is that I learned La strada had been a key influence on his writing of "Me and Bobby McGee". Being a country music listener, I knew about Fred Rose having the title and handing it over to Kris to write the actual song, but I'd never heard that the Fellini film was part of it at all. Pope Francis recently cited La strada as his favorite film, so now I'm wondering what he thinks of "Bobby McGee". That'd be a fun conversation to have, I think.

(Did I mention I'm medicated right now? 'Cause I am.)

malazar

09-30-13 09:22 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Finished off the Criterion Challenge with the new 35th Anniversary blu-ray of Halloween. It seems like a good capstone to a fun month. I look forward to doing this again next year.

Mondo Kane

09-30-13 10:15 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

End of challenge! I can safely say that this was the best CC marathon I've yet to have. It was hard to top the very first challenge (Since I watched a lot of personal favorites from my collection that year) but this was a more impressive feat to me considering I only re-watched just one movie....Well, one-and-a-half, actually (Missed the first hour of Zatoichi/Doomed Man)

My best/favorites of the bunch:
The Kid with a Bike
Summer with Monika
Certified Copy
Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival
Cría cuervos
L’enfance nue
Samaritan Zatoichi

Thanks for hosting, CGiant!

ntnon

10-01-13 04:42 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

I wound up being so busy - sometimes watching, sometimes not - that I've failed to comment much over the past few weeks, annoyingly.

Got a lot watched, though! And many of them were very good indeed. I stalled out trying to tick things off the checklist (although I suspect I got most of it covered anyway) because I realised I wouldn't be able to watch any of the "Top 10" lists: mostly because neither I nor the library had enough of the titles to allow it, but also because I became a little annoyed that every time I found a list from which I could watch 8 or nine (and thus conceivably justify blind buying the final title) wound up not having ten titles, but eleven, twelve or more...! Bloody people! :rolleyes:

Crumb was fascinating, and seemed really honest and open, which was refreshing. Made me sad at the end to read that his brother killed himself, though... and naturally led to the disturbing thought that the documentary contributed in some way. :(

Although much of the films was incomprehensible, I also really enjoyed the Eclipse set Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr.. They all seemed very surreal and dada-esque, which naturally linked for me directly to Monty Python. I wonder if some of the lack of enjoyment that I've noticed in various places is because they seem to me so peculiarly (weirdly) British in tone and humour. No More Excuses was my easily favourite. Didn't understand it at all - I kept feeling that all the inter-cutting was probably meant to imply something, or link cleverly (although Downey seemed to deny that in conversation with Paul Thomas Anderson) - but the humour was strong and extremely funny. Definitely reminded me of Python and Harry Enfield (and others) particularly in it's SINA segments. I didn't quite get until the interviews that he actually invaded a real baseball game dressed as a Confederate soldier, though! Marvellous... :D

I appreciated W.C. Fields' films more this year, too. And was very pleasantly surprised to find myself really engaging with The Phantom Carriage. On the Waterfront and Citizen Kane were both excellent (quelle surprise), but so was The Seventh Seal, which was very interesting - I wasn't expecting to enjoy it much. Several "foreign" and "artsy" films leave me cold, so such a famous one did not inspire me to hope for much - particularly as I was under the distinct impression that it was full-allegorical and confusing, which was not my experience at all. It was just a well-told, well-acted and interesting film. I'm going to have to seek it out and buy it now, I think.

The Harder They Come was a bit odd, and I found parts of it hard to follow - but the great music compensated for all that. The Four Feathers seemed very dated (for probably obvious reasons), but was enjoyable enough, while I was sure Lonesome was a silent film going into it, but then partway through they started talking and didn't stop..! It was very slight, I felt, but well done.

Blackmail and Young and Innocent were both pretty good, Young and Innocent the stronger for me. Neither were terribly complex, and Blackmail reminded me very much of... I can't recall the title. Something I watched not long ago where the girl wanted to confess to a crime, but wound up not having to because the perceived murderer died.. in a fire..? Or maybe I've seen this before..

Evita is a film I've never seen, but know fairly well because various family members had the soundtrack as I was growing up. So many of the main songs - and story points - were extremely familiar. I was not accustomed to Mr Banderas' voice, however, and wasn't terribly impressed... but I think that thought had as much to do with my not liking much of the 'new' (to me) music - i.e. that which I did not remember - for being so un-musical and weird. Easy to see why it didn't stick with me through the years as the better songs did. Overall, though, it's a very good film. Next, I guess, I need to read up on it's accuracy (or not), to make sure I know a little about that area of history.. and have it unMadonna-ed in case the film is atrociously inaccurate. ;)

Carrie.. I knew most of what was going to happen, but still. Shouldn't have watched it late at night... Bram Stoker's Dracula I'm enjoying - know the story, never seen the whole film. Keanu gets a lot of flak, but all I hear is a) An American trying to do a British accent, which b) Comes off very, very stilted.... which is actually not out of keeping with the straight-laced Harker's character as I've always read/watched/thought of it. So I don't have much problem with him. I was rather pleased to hear Winona Ryder say "clerk" as "clark" though. Plus Mr Hopkins' van Helsing comes across as an egocentric tw*t... which again, fits well with my reading of the story (and few adaptations). Good job!

Best of the last few weeks is probably yesterday's Brute Force. The interview I watched said it was an early and important prison film, and it's impossible to disagree. It reminded me of a lost of films that followed it, which probably speaks to it's import as much as anything. I didn't quite get the Nazi overtones that the essay and interview mentioned, because I don't tend to subscribe entirely to the 'can't be a coincidence' links they draw - it's a prison, so obviously it shares similarities with the concentration camps. I'm sure the parallels could have been deliberately placed, but I don't think they need to be for it to resonate and be an excellent film. The firm implication that Munsey actually lies to Tom about his wife (rather than, as initially it appears, withholds and releases information to suit his perverse ends) is a particularly bitter note and damning character point for this brilliantly believable villain.

Another film that I wasn't really expecting to enjoy based on the short summary I saw, was Summer Hours. Sounds dull, not much really happens... all the characters don't go far, don't really change much or learn much and overall it's just a bit sad. Which is obviously the point. It brings up important issues, questions and themes, presents all sides, hints at the "right" path, reminds us there rarely IS a 'right' path, and then just goes about its business of reminding us that death is sad, final and difficult to deal with. And that dealing with it and all the fallout is at least as difficult again. Particularly when there are final wishes (spoken, unspoken; implied, necessary; ignorable, impossible) and then even more so when those wishes conflict with the wishes of the survivors. I really felt sorry for the elder brother and his hopes to preserve the legacy of his uncle - and not just keep the house and collection together, but preserve his memories of his mother that are increasingly eroded by the memories of others of her 'true' feelings towards the artist. Clearly French films starring Ms Binoche are universally excellent! :)

ntnon

10-01-13 05:16 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis McClain (Post 11845873)

I do, however, want to bring up this essay written by Thane Rosenbaum for Criterion's 2011 edition of the film. I wonder: Am I alone in not particularly caring for this one?

I thought I'd read it, too, particularly since I think 12 Angry Men is one of the best films I've ever seen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis McClain (Post 11845873)

I don't understand what was "ironic" about the film's influence. Yes, I get that New York is outside Hollywood geographically and culturally, but is that actual irony? Even if we accept some kind of protectionist view wherein making films outside Hollywood is a no-no for Hollywood productions to promote, there's nothing in 12 Angry Men that addresses the matter.

My impression - and it could be a false one - is that the author meant (my stresses added) that it was ironic that 12 "helped to define an era of filmmaking grounded in the gritty realism and frenetic energy of urban New York" when it takes place in such a confined and sterile environment. Not that, and forgive me if I'm misunderstanding you, the irony is that it's a "Hollywood" film that isn't in Hollywood, but that it's a New York film that isn't (really) in New York - which IS ironic, if the other part of the statement ("helped to define") is accurate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis McClain (Post 11845873)

There's something about sweeping the Holocaust and the Hollywood blacklist together inside a parenthetical phrase as offhand examples of injustices of the twentieth century that seems reductive to the point of flippant.

Hm, I see your point, but I don't quite agree again. I'll add my own stress to try and explain my reading:

"It is not surprising that Lumet, whose lifetime coincided with so many of the injustices of the twentieth century—from the Holocaust to the Hollywood blacklist—would choose as the subject of his first feature a story painted in the gray brushstrokes of prejudice."

I don't see them being lumped together offhand, but merely used as bookends of that particular period. I don't even think it flippant to equate the two, since the point being made is about prejudice. Yes, the Holocaust was far, far more awful than the blacklist, but the point being made - the link found between the two - is that of blind prejudice. The equation is Hitler on Jews, Gypsies, etc.; McCarthy on Communists; Ed Begley and Lee Cobb's Jurors 10 and 3 on, essentially, immigrant kids. It's a drawing of parallels between opinions and prejudices, not between particular events.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis McClain (Post 11845873)

Moreover, by this point in the essay, Rosenbaum has done nothing to connect Lumet with either event aside from having been alive when they took place. It isn't until later in the essay that he even makes mention of Lumet being Jewish (without establishing any further direct connection to the Holocaust).

But since the word used is merely that Lumet's life "coincided" with these events, I don't feel that your criticism is valid: it isn't, I feel, terribly important that he was/is Jewish and/or blacklisted: a non-Jew, non-blacklisted person whose life was also lived alongside those events could have made the same points. Anyone can comment on such prejudice, whether or not they've actually been a victim of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis McClain (Post 11845873)

Also, I finally saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a few hours ago. I'm still organizing my thoughts on that one.

Ah, nuts. I meant to get to that one too.

shadokitty

10-01-13 07:39 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

While I didn't watch as much as I would have liked, I did enjoy what I watched, so I would consider it a successful challenge. Thanks for another fun challenge Cardiff.

Giles

10-01-13 08:29 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

well wow, the list thread was dropped like a lead penny for the sake of the Horror Challenge... :( usually the lists stay up for at least a couple of days after the challenge has ended.

Trevor

10-01-13 08:55 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giles (Post 11854969)

well wow, the list thread was dropped like a lead penny for the sake of the Horror Challenge... :( usually the lists stay up for at least a couple of days after the challenge has ended.

Wait, can't you do something about that now?

Giles

10-01-13 09:11 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trevor (Post 11854999)

Wait, can't you do something about that now?

yes I actually can - I hope the mod who did release the thread wont mind if I reinstate it for a couple of more days.

Trevor

10-01-13 09:20 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giles (Post 11855032)

yes I actually can - I hope the mod who did release the thread wont mind if I reinstate it for a couple of more days.

I would hope not. I know some people don't appreciate the "attention" that the Challenges get, but I think they help the site. So several days a month (last couple and first few perhaps) of two stickied threads at the top of one sub-forum can hopefully be tolerated by all.

Ash Ketchum

10-01-13 10:27 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

In the last two weeks of the Challenge, I only watched two films. The big project I've been working on for the last two weeks is my YouTube channel. I've finally found a way to transfer VHS tape to my computer, so I've been mining tapes filled with footage I shot decades ago to find suitable clips for YouTube. Lots of Times Square and Central Park stuff. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Ashitaka6

The last film I watched for this challenge was GENOCIDE (1968), a nod to the Horror Challenge, which I won't be participating in (too busy with other projects). It's a fascinating Japanese eco-horror-thriller about swarms of insects on a rampage on an island off Japan, all done with real insects, as far as I can tell. It's got significant participation from non-Japanese actors, all of whom speak Japanese to everyone else, including each other. (All post-dubbed.) One of them, black actor Chico Roland, was in two of Koreyoshi Kurahara's films (found on an Eclipse set that I watched for last year's challenge), and he turns up in Sonny Chiba's THE STREET FIGHTER (1974) as the poor bastard who suffers emasculation at the hands of Chiba. There is real tension between the Japanese characters and the American officers who come to the island and throw their weight around after a plane carrying an H-bomb crashlands there. There is a blond woman who's an Auschwitz survivor and may play a part in the insects' erratic behavior. Quite a mix of unusual elements at play here and a lot harder-edged than, say, THE GREEN SLIME, another Japanese sci-fi film from that year.

CardiffGiant

10-01-13 11:24 AM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Flash Sale! Happening now.

Picked up a 6 titles. I guess my Criterion Challenge will continue.

I still have to finish updating my list. I fell short of the checklist, but not by much...I'll update later tonight.

BobO'Link

10-01-13 01:09 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardiffGiant (Post 11855248)

They *would* do that when I'm pretty much tapped out!

My list will be easy to update. I really slacked off and only watched *one* Criterion title all month. I'll even have to look at the "uncataloged" pile (watched but not yet in the database) to see which one I watched! The past couple of years finally caught up and I rested some in anticipation of the Horror Challenge.

pacaway

10-01-13 04:30 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Came pretty close to completing the check list with my 18 viewed items. Completed all decades but missed 4 blocks of spine numbers; did not get to an Eclipse title but watched 2 titles not on DVD (both in a theatre no less); was one short on interviews and did not get an entire set done nor did I listen to a soundtrack. Everything else was completed. I’m certainly satisfied with those results.

I watched 7 discs of my own (all DVDs, for some reason I did not watch any of my own blu-rays), 9 from the library (8 blu-rays and 1 DVD), and 2 at the theatre (as I mentioned). I don’t know why I got so many from the library, when I have so many of my own that I could have watched.

Watched one crossover title, Eyes Without a Face, before falling asleep at about 1pm last night.

Watched Heaven’s Gate last night. It was very long, over 3.5 hours, and had one of the bleakest endings in my recent movie watching history, except for a movie from the Netherlands that I saw at the Calgary International Film Festival the other day called The Fifth Season. It’s a good candidate for Criterion, actually! :)

Finally got Seven Samurai watched, which I enjoyed the second half of more than the first.

Anyway, see you all back next year, hopefully. Now on to the ‘horrors’ of October!

Travis McClain

10-01-13 09:23 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

The last 48 hours were something of a slog, and I still failed to complete the checklist. The last film I got to was I Am Curious (Yellow). I was simply too exhausted to watch its (Blue) counterpart. From my Letterboxd diary:

Spoiler:

I Am Curious (Yellow)
-X- 1960 (167)
-X- 151-200 (#180)
-X- Language: Swedish
-X- Theme: Cult Movies
-X- Essay: Still Curious by Gary Giddins
1/10 List: Brie Larson's Top 10

I've still got to review Ivan's Childhood, respond to some things in this discussion thread, and write up my end-of-challenge remarks. I've got reviewing fatigue right now, though, so it's all gonna have to wait another day!

Travis McClain

10-03-13 09:56 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntnon (Post 11854839)

That reading of it makes sense, I suppose. I have a hair-trigger when it comes to use of the word "ironic", and I didn't feel that Rosenbaum made clear just what the irony was.

Quote:

I don't see them being lumped together offhand, but merely used as bookends of that particular period. I don't even think it flippant to equate the two, since the point being made is about prejudice. Yes, the Holocaust was far, far more awful than the blacklist, but the point being made - the link found between the two - is that of blind prejudice. The equation is Hitler on Jews, Gypsies, etc.; McCarthy on Communists; Ed Begley and Lee Cobb's Jurors 10 and 3 on, essentially, immigrant kids. It's a drawing of parallels between opinions and prejudices, not between particular events.

I'm the guy who wants to slap people who try to say "you can't compare" two things, or fail to understand that comparing =/= equating. I get your argument here. My issue here is that it feels Rosenbaum name-dropped the Holocaust without justifying the reference.

Quote:

That's kind of my point, actually: So what? So what that these things occurred while Sidney Lumet drew breath? What do they have to do with Lumet and 12 Angry Men? That unanswered question is why I take umbrage with Rosenbaum's essay. I'm not saying there's no relationship. I'm just saying that Rosenbaum never established one.

He could have said that the film was made for audiences who had witnessed the Holocaust and McCarthy's witch hunt, and at least that would have established a connection between the name-checked events and the film at hand. But instead, the connection is made through, and to, Lumet - but without any meaning. It's lazy writing, using "Holocaust" and "McCarthy" as little more than provocative buzzwords.

Travis McClain

10-03-13 11:25 PM

Re: 5th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread

Looking Back

I set out with a few objectives. One was to watch the five discs in my library that were eligible for this challenge but that I had not yet logged in my DVD Profiler. On that score, I went 3-2. Another goal was to make use of a free trial of Amazon Prime to stream the movies they had that aren't in The Criterion Collection on HuluPlus. I was successful there, watching all eight that I found in my audit. I intended to write several pieces for Flickchart. I turned in two, though what held up writing a third is that I didn't get to the supplemental content on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. My last goal was to complete the checklist. I ended the challenge at 56/59 checkmarks.

Revisitations
I went back to four films during this year's challenge that I had previously seen, three of them because they were discs in my library I hadn't logged in DVD Profiler. Of those three, two were films I had seen during their original theatrical runs but not since: Being John Malkovich and Rushmore. Now, as then, I enjoyed the former and wasn't in love with the latter. The others were the adaptation of John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and 12 Angry Men, which my friend hadn't seen. It's a masterpiece that wows me every time.

The 70s
For whatever reason, I've done very little exploration of film of the 1970's over the years. I didn't consciously set out to focus on that decade during this challenge, but I watched more films from that decade (six) than any other. Each decade feels distinct, but it wasn't until this challenge that I finally got a sense of the 70's. Commentary on social issues is more muted than films of the 60's, or even of the 90's. There are more shades of gray, and it's more apparent to me now that filmmakers hadn't abandoned the civil rights movements of the 60's; they were, in their own way, trying to portray a more sophisticated look at the world in hopes of engaging cynical audiences.

I look at the casual criminals of The Friends of Eddie Coyle, for instance, or the business-as-usual corruption in The Harder They Come. Mon oncle Antoine was very much a "zeitgeist" film for Quebecoise audiences in 1971, tapping into themes of identity that were meant to be read in a specific context, but which are accessible even without it. There is an unasked, and unanswered, question at the end of that film that I think exists in all the 70's movies I watched: "Where do we take it from here?"

Class
In previous years, my selections have skewed more toward intimate, personal relationship stories but this year, the most dominant theme was easily one of class. It started with my first movie, Gomorrah, and ran all the way through the last, I Am Curious (Yellow), the latter film explicitly discussing the nature of class in Sweden. The contexts and objectives were as different as their settings, but the universal theme was that people are divided by class. I didn't deliberately set out to watch any of these films for the purpose of exploring that theme, but it emerged all the same.

In some films, class differences were played for laughs (City Lights, My Man Godfrey). In others, it was intrinsically linked to race (12 Angry Men, Do the Right Thing). There were films about class in different countries (The Harder They Come, Mon oncle Antoine, I Am Curious (Yellow). I saw class at war (In Which We Serve), in school (Rushmore), and in real life (Crumb, Harlan County U.S.A.).

What was most striking was how identifiable most of those films still are. Even something as benign and privileged as My Man Godfrey still plays as something of a poor man's daydream. Not just because Godfrey winds up showing up the pompous rich family, but because he gets the satisfaction of telling them off. Finding out in the end that he had been born with a silver spoon and had just walked away from it all in a fit of self-pity detracts from our identification with him, but even if he's not *really* one of us, we feel like he understands us.

My List, Ranked by End-of-Challenge Position on My Flickchart
(Rank is out of 1584 movies.)

Spoiler:

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