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Post by Joe Chip on Nov 24, 2005 14:12:34 GMT
Does anyone have any opinions on the Susan Lawly recommended films list? I haven't seen any of them yet (and probably won't bother with the Lars Von Trier thing - the one film by him I've seen was godawful...)
A film which I think WH fans would appreciate is Gary Oldman's "Nil By Mouth" - an uber-bleak portrait of alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence in South London. Some of Ray Winstone's dialogue could be straight from 'Philosophy of The Wife-Beater'.
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Post by theotherjohn on Nov 26, 2005 17:50:56 GMT
"The Five Obstructions" is actually a really fine film. Anyone interested in filmmaking would find it worthwhile. It's a documentary about a filmmaker called Jurgen Leth who made a short film in the 60's called "The Perfect Human". This film, which was a major influence to Von Trier (he claims to have watched it about 30 times), inspires him to bring Jurgen Leth out of retirement and challenge him to remake the film 5 times, each time with rules that Von Trier has set to make the film more difficult. For example, for the first film no shot can be longer than 12 seconds frames long (which when seen in its complete form is pretty stunning). Try and see it if you can!
What other films... "The War Zone"? That goes without saying doesn't it? "In a Glass Cage" is a good one. "Palindromes" was quite enjoyable too. The Aktion (and Structural) films of Kurt Kren are worth checking out as well.
Can anyone suggest some more films, of a mainstream, independent, foreign or experimental nature?
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Post by ZoneA on Nov 26, 2005 18:12:39 GMT
Wanting films that push limits? Try 'Irreversible' and 'I Stand Alone' by Gaspar Noe, 'Bleeder' and 'Pusher' by Nikolas Winding Refn, and, of course 'Oldboy' by Park Chan-Wook and 'Audition' by Takashi Mike.
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Post by theotherjohn on Nov 26, 2005 18:26:53 GMT
Ah, Irreversible! I Stand Alone! Old Boy! Audition! Good choice of films sir, you have excellent taste.
Not seen Bleeder or Pusher but want to do. "August Underground" is reasonable, although the first half of the film is great, but give the sequel a miss, it's terrible. "Scrapbook" is a much better film. Some of the Hong Kong Cat III films are worth seeing, "Red to Kill" especially. Royston Tan's "15" is a slow mover, but very impressive. "Perfect Blue" is a favourite of mine.
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Post by knuckles on Nov 27, 2005 21:47:36 GMT
My two faves:
The Firm - Gary Oldman's best outing I think. A very stimulating film and damn good fun, too!
Made In Britain - Not necessarily a true-to-life story of a typical skinhead, but does a good job at showing total disillusionment of youth at the time. Trevor does indeed act like a prick, but you can't help being on his side a lot of the time!
Also up there: Scum, Salo, The War Games & Threads
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Post by Joe Chip on Nov 28, 2005 1:15:08 GMT
There's a great Mike Leigh film starring Gary Oldman, Phil Daniels and Tim Roth called 'Meantime'. His later film 'Naked' is also superb. I wasn't too enamoured of his Gilbert and Sullivan tribute movie though!
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Post by knuckles on Nov 28, 2005 3:18:53 GMT
I agree, Meantime and Naked are pretty neat too - that guy in Naked was such a bastard!!
Fact: I used to live in the same tower block in Haggerston, London where some of Meantime was filmed. The part where Tim Roth is jammed in the pantry in the flat - I lived on the 9th floor. It was very weird to see. The pub they were in playing pool closed just after I moved in ~ 1996. How's about that for some useless info!
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Post by ggcub on Nov 28, 2005 8:31:57 GMT
What me and some loser friends like to do is to watch double bills that are as mismatched as you can get...recent examples being "In A Glass Cage" vs the "Brady Bunch Movie", or "Shogun's Sadism" vs the Ron Jeremy documentary. I thoroughly recommend doing this! It'd be great if you could share your own examples if you have any...GG
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Post by Joe Chip on Nov 28, 2005 19:06:40 GMT
I agree, Meantime and Naked are pretty neat too - that guy in Naked was such a bastard!! Fact: I used to live in the same tower block in Haggerston, London where some of Meantime was filmed. The part where Tim Roth is jammed in the pantry in the flat - I lived on the 9th floor. It was very weird to see. The pub they were in playing pool closed just after I moved in ~ 1996. How's about that for some useless info! Well, I found that interesting - another big Whitehouse fan was telling me his relatives live in the posh houses (Snaresbrook?) where 'Auntie Barbara' lives in Meantime... Looking back at all the gory/disturbing/twisted celluloid I've ever seen, I can only remember two films where I got up and turned off the video, freaked out. One of them was the very underground Cazazza/Christopherson production "Mystery Movie". Sometimes known as the San Diego Polarvision footage, amongst other names like "Mad Doctor Operates". I saw this in exactly the right circumstances - a scratchy nth gen copy (always adds something to a film...), late at night when I was a bit spaced out, and most importantly being unaware of the provenance of the film, only that it was claimed to be 'found footage'. And the other film that made me feel that ill was Mike Leigh's directorial debut "Bleak Moments" for its agonising and gloating depiction of British restraint, shyness and social dysfunction. Probably incomprehensible to anyone outside the UK. You can thank your lucky stars!
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Post by La Tenia on Nov 28, 2005 21:47:20 GMT
Harmony Korine is an interesting film-maker, a somewhat different view of America than you might normally see. Gummo is a great film and actually very rewatchable.
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Post by theotherjohn on Nov 28, 2005 22:32:01 GMT
Gummo's on my films-to-buy list but I saw his Dogme film Julien Donkey-Boy and enjoyed it. I wouldn't be surprised if Harmony likes Whitehouse himself. I saw Last Days today and saw he was in it. It's an exceptional film by the way, even though I don't care for Nirvana in the slightest.
On a related note, I guess Larry Clark's film "Kids" might be of interest to some people here. And - to make another link here - I got "Ken Park" the other day too but still need to watch it. I'll let you know whether it's worth your time.
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Post by La Tenia on Nov 28, 2005 23:14:06 GMT
I've heard mixed opinions of Ken Park but I'm certainly interested in seeing it just because his other films were so great. Harmony Korine's screenplay for Kids is spot on.
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Post by knuckles on Nov 29, 2005 0:20:05 GMT
Looking back at all the gory/disturbing/twisted celluloid I've ever seen, I can only remember two films where I got up and turned off the video, freaked out. One of them was the very underground Cazazza/Christopherson production "Mystery Movie". Sometimes known as the San Diego Polarvision footage, amongst other names like "Mad Doctor Operates". I saw this in exactly the right circumstances - a scratchy nth gen copy (always adds something to a film...), late at night when I was a bit spaced out, and most importantly being unaware of the provenance of the film, only that it was claimed to be 'found footage'. And the other film that made me feel that ill was Mike Leigh's directorial debut "Bleak Moments" for its agonising and gloating depiction of British restraint, shyness and social dysfunction. Probably incomprehensible to anyone outside the UK. You can thank your lucky stars! Haven't seen the latter, but I think I've seen the first. Does this jave a bunch of kids with skateboards at the start and then some electronic devices and an operation halfway? If so, then yes - I got up and turned this off too. The only other time I did that was during a Channel 4 'Censored' season back in the early 90s (I think) with some movie about some chick who was addicted to sex (I think). Anyway, she had an abortion or something and had sex and, well, talk about Bloodfucking!!!
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Post by Joe Chip on Nov 29, 2005 11:39:30 GMT
Yeah, it's the same film we're talking about. I freaked out to the point of not wanting the video in the house.
Then when I'd learned that it was indeed a Cazazza production, and saw it again later, I noticed that just about everything is easily fakeable effects, no one really gets hurt and that there's a very silly sense of humour just under the surface...
Still a brilliant use of 'poor quality' film work, making you think you've seen something you haven't...and the electrical box stuff was the product of a truly twisted mind!
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Post by ljp on Nov 29, 2005 21:10:07 GMT
Yeah, it's the same film we're talking about. I freaked out to the point of not wanting the video in the house.
Then when I'd learned that it was indeed a Cazazza production, and saw it again later, I noticed that just about everything is easily fakeable effects, no one really gets hurt and that there's a very silly sense of humour just under the surface...
Still a brilliant use of 'poor quality' film work, making you think you've seen something you haven't...and the electrical box stuff was the product of a truly twisted mind![/quote]
I wonder if that Cazazza film is on DVD and available? I'm a huge Cazazza fan, although I've only heard his music so far...
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