What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

The Baby sitter was Mrs MTDS' dad!

This gets seedier by the minute.

[Phurious]

Originally Posted by monkeyscreams

Last night I watched Calvaire (The Ordeal). It's dark, funny, scary and I liked it very much. Loved the dance scene of the villagers. Brigitte Lahaie has a small role also.

It's mentioned in the Arthouse Atrocities thread, but I'd highly recommend Du Welz's follow up Vinyan.

[Prince_Vajda]

The Lost World (1925). A fantastic silent movie. Good acting, quite a few humorous scenes, and top-notch stop-motion animation*!

*Willis H. O'Brien was responsible for the great Dinosaurs - he was also the man in charge for King Kong (1933)!

Greetings

[Phurious]

Miracle Mile - thanks a million to Slippery Jack for providing me with this piece of outright 80s awesomeness.
Aptly described by him as Punch-Drunk Love meets After Hours (and I'd add) with a dash of Armageddon. And the enormous bonus of a Tangerine Dream OST - this is definitely one of the best films I've seen recently and yet another hit from my favourite decade of film.

Rewatched City Of The Living Dead - this used to be the weakest in the Gates of hell trilogy for me, but something just clicked last night (as it has done so often in the past when I rewatch Fulci's films) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. What I deemed as slow paced previously actually felt measured and the dread was palpable throughout; punctuated perfectly with some of the best gore scenes that Fulci's ever committed to celluloid. There's also some really great Bavaesque lighting and pretty impressive deep focus photography in places ( @ Slippery Jack).
And of course the whole thing is highlighted perfectly with Fabio Frizzi's magnificent score.
Looking forward to reading what Thrower has to say about it in Beyond Terror.

[Slippery Jack]

Don’t Torture a Duckling
The first Fulci film I’ve seen that I really enjoyed! There was a definite turning point during the churchyard chain-whipping scene, where I went from liking it to loving it – what a sequence! Gruelling and emotionally shattering, didn’t know Lucio had it in him! I’d dismissed his Gates of Hell films for the preference of torturously extended schlock over things like style and atmosphere, so it was a surprise to find this film had both in spades! Think the rural setting had a lot to do with it, with some gorgeous location photography – this, Torso, House with Laughing Windows – loving the rural Italian horror! Technically the film is very impressive, feels very much like a director impassioned with the possibilities of filmmaking, something I never felt with his other stuff – deep focus, clever cross-cutting, performances straight to camera for dramatic impact, lots to admire here. Performance-wise it was all about Florinda Balkan for me. An immense screen presence – seeing her wondering the woods, almost feral-like, put me in mind (unfortunately) of Lucky McKee’s The Woman, Balkan effortlessly putting that film to shame with her steely gaze!

Bad Boy Bubby
A mega-recommendation (and top birthday gift!) by Phurious, who’s been banging on about it for ages... With Dogtooth being one of my favourite films of the past ten (ish?) years, don’t think there was any way I was not going to like this film – and I did of course! It probably makes me sound a WEIRDO, but it was the opening 35 minutes that completely blew me away – by turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and confrontational (tough watching as a cat lover!). Off the top of my head I can’t think of a more striking first act. Nicholas Hope is frankly stunning in the lead, with a head-spinning level of detail to his performance – I particularly liked how Bubby studies the mouth of the person who is speaking to him – just like a cat (well, my cat at least)! The second act I enjoyed for the baton-passing storytelling style, as Bubby pinball’s from one encounter to the next (I reckon this film must’ve influenced Todd Solondz, especially with Palindromes). I knew going in about the 35 (!!!) credited cinematographers and ‘binaural’ sound design, but I didn’t really notice either that much over the course of the film – it was a lot less overtly experimental than I was expecting, which isn’t really a criticism... I would LOVE to rewatch this with headphones to study the sound design in detail. Think it was only the third act, or final 15 minutes or so, that I wasn’t so keen on. The story resolution felt a little too ‘neat’ and easy to a pessimist like me! I’m not even gonna touch on the religious themes – loads to discuss here! But yeah, great film.

[Gojirosan]

Boogeyman (2005) - underdeveloped and botched rendering of a promising idea. Very disappointing, but not as awful as it could have been I suppose.

Taken (2008) - also disappointing for me. Liam Neeson was dreadful, as usual, and the film was rather distasteful and not at all my kind of thing. Quite a nasty and gruelling experience, but not in a rewarding way - more 8mm than Martyrs. Impeccably made, but the technique was not enough to distract from the negative points of the film.

Eyes Without A Face (1960) - after the horrible experience of Taken, I had to remind myself that France has produced some wonderful films over the years, so rewatched one of the best. A bona fide masterpiece. Felt better about things after this!

[monkeyscreams]

Originally Posted by Phurious

It's mentioned in the Arthouse Atrocities thread, but I'd highly recommend Du Welz's follow up Vinyan.

Thank you, it's already on my wishlist!

[Phurious]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

Don’t Torture a Duckling
The first Fulci film I’ve seen that I really enjoyed! There was a definite turning point during the churchyard chain-whipping scene, where I went from liking it to loving it – what a sequence! Gruelling and emotionally shattering, didn’t know Lucio had it in him! I’d dismissed his Gates of Hell films for the preference of torturously extended schlock over things like style and atmosphere, so it was a surprise to find this film had both in spades! Think the rural setting had a lot to do with it, with some gorgeous location photography – this, Torso, House with Laughing Windows – loving the rural Italian horror! Technically the film is very impressive, feels very much like a director impassioned with the possibilities of filmmaking, something I never felt with his other stuff – deep focus, clever cross-cutting, performances straight to camera for dramatic impact, lots to admire here. Performance-wise it was all about Florinda Balkan for me. An immense screen presence – seeing her wondering the woods, almost feral-like, put me in mind (unfortunately) of Lucky McKee’s The Woman, Balkan effortlessly putting that film to shame with her steely gaze!

Bad Boy Bubby
A mega-recommendation (and top birthday gift!) by Phurious, who’s been banging on about it for ages... With Dogtooth being one of my favourite films of the past ten (ish?) years, don’t think there was any way I was not going to like this film – and I did of course! It probably makes me sound a WEIRDO, but it was the opening 35 minutes that completely blew me away – by turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and confrontational (tough watching as a cat lover!). Off the top of my head I can’t think of a more striking first act. Nicholas Hope is frankly stunning in the lead, with a head-spinning level of detail to his performance – I particularly liked how Bubby studies the mouth of the person who is speaking to him – just like a cat (well, my cat at least)! The second act I enjoyed for the baton-passing storytelling style, as Bubby pinball’s from one encounter to the next (I reckon this film must’ve influenced Todd Solondz, especially with Palindromes). I knew going in about the 35 (!!!) credited cinematographers and ‘binaural’ sound design, but I didn’t really notice either that much over the course of the film – it was a lot less overtly experimental than I was expecting, which isn’t really a criticism... I would LOVE to rewatch this with headphones to study the sound design in detail. Think it was only the third act, or final 15 minutes or so, that I wasn’t so keen on. The story resolution felt a little too ‘neat’ and easy to a pessimist like me! I’m not even gonna touch on the religious themes – loads to discuss here! But yeah, great film.

Great to hear you've at last found a Fulci you like (it's undoubtedly one of his best for me too), but even more chuffed to hear you enjoyed Bad Boy Bubby.
As for the last 15 mins and the resolution, you can hear De Heer's alternative on the interview with him, which I'm sure you would have favoured.
However I really like the 'neatness' and optimism of the ending as it really is the other end of the spectrum from the beginning and Bubby is such an extraordinary character who has been through just about everything you can imagine, so I think he deserves some wholesomeness in his life.

[Phurious]

Originally Posted by monkeyscreams

Thank you, it's already on my wishlist!

Cool. Make sure it's the R1 with the brilliant making of documentary on it.

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Phurious

As for the last 15 mins and the resolution, you can hear De Heer's alternative on the interview with him, which I'm sure you would have favoured.
However I really like the 'neatness' and optimism of the ending as it really is the other end of the spectrum from the beginning and Bubby is such an extraordinary character who has been through just about everything you can imagine, so I think he deserves some wholesomeness in his life.

[SPOILERS FOR 'BAD BOY BUBBY']

Think I was expecting some kind of Kaspar Hauser shit to go down I was taken by surprise by the almost hyper-real happiness of the ending. Naturally, I read the whole third act as a delusion of Bubby's fractured psyche ...

Have you seen any of Lodge Kerrigan's stuff ? Nothing like Bubby, but Clean, Shaven and Keane both offer fascinating and devestating portraits of mental collapse - no happiness to be found here . . .