Criterion Film Club: Suggestions and General Discussion

[feihong]

I saw the first episode of Planetes, it was pretty interesting. And the art is exceptional.

[Mr Sausage]

This round we're doing one of Kon's four feature films as a director. His series, Paranoia Agent, we're saving for a potential anime watchalong.

[Mr Sausage]

So I didn't find the voting system worked overwell this last round. I want to change that. Going forward, I want to focus more on curation than random titles. So:

Everyone who'd like to participate in the anime watchalong in some capacity, let me know here and I'll add your name to the pool of curators.

Ideally, I'd like at least everyone who gave suggestions for the current round to add their names.



I'm not sure exactly what I want to do yet. Some options are:

-the curator is selected by random number generator and chooses 1 series for discussion
-the curator is selected by random number generator and chooses 5 series for a vote (less keen on this option)
-the curator is selected via some game or contest and chooses 1 or 5 series
-the curator is selected based on participation in the previous round (tho' this might weight the thing towards newbies, like with me in the Lain thread).

Let me know what options you prefer, or if you have a better idea.

[Mr Sausage]

I wavered between my two favourites, Paprika and Tokyo Godfathers, and went with the latter, because I think I have slightly more to say there about its themes, characters, tones, and humanity. But I could easily switch my vote to Paprika, because it's such a structural mind bend.

[therewillbeblus]

I like the first idea. We’d probably get a more eclectic batch if five members are selected and each gets to pick only one to submit to vote, rather than throw out recs left and right. Selected people would also likely pause to think about how to use their vote: which ‘one’ series they’re most passionate about, what would garner the most enthusiasm or discussion, etc. There seem to be two key benefits of this (outside of giving more diverse voices a seat at the table of picks): a) More reflection might filter richer series, b) members (well, at least I) would probably be more likely to try out a show that X member thought was the number one anime to discuss out of all anime, than they for a batch of titles that contain tertiary suggestions to someone’s long post

[Mr Sausage]

For the first one, I was thinking the curator just chooses the one film we discuss, like Michael Kerpan did with Lain.

I like your idea, but don't know if I want to wrangle five members to get me films by the deadline...

[therewillbeblus]

That's fair, it would be annoying for you to hunt five people down. The other thought is to pick less than five people, even just two. Giving other participating members at least two films to vote on would allow people to not feel totally trapped with one option from the get-go, and also encourage the two competing members to champion their respective choices to the voting body. There could also be a 'double-elimination' clause where, if the losing series gets at least two (or some arbitrary number of) votes, it could be added into the next round of three options as a green-party candidate with potential to overtake the two pitched - but I don't want to make things overly complicated, that just sounded fun. Since these series are so much more of a commitment than a film in the regular film project, it seems worth sending something to a vote

[feihong]

I wanted to review Perfect Blue, and see what I could get out of it decades later.

[therewillbeblus]

I voted Millennium Actress because it’s my newfound favorite and I think it’ll provide the richest discussion, with maybe Paprika a close second. Plus I want to hear why Mr Sausage hates it (maybe he’ll even change his mind on it too!)

[feihong]

Millenium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers––especially Millenium Actress––are the Kon films I watched when they came out and felt that they were good movies. I saw Paprika and hated it, watched it last year and hated it all over again. But I really appreciated Millenium Actress at the time. That said, I hardly remember any of the Kon movies––even Paprika, which I just saw literally only months ago. I think Tokyo Godfathers is maybe the most memorable to me.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, Paprika is probably my least favorite, but I still think it'd lead a more interesting discussion than Perfect Blue, which is a really impressive film and probably my second favorite Kon. I'm just not sure it's doing a whole lot more than manifesting an involving surrogate experience of psychological disorientation. I mean, it definitely is doing more than that, but that flavor is so overwhelming that I'm skeptical testing out the other ingredients will be fruitful, or doing so might feel forced, though I could be totally wrong. It famously inspired Black Swan and a bunch of specific shots in various Aronofsky films, so it's definitely a crucial blueprint for a specific type of film done well. Perfect, even.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I definitely second the Vinland Saga manga.

[Mr Sausage]

Soooo...no one wants to participate?

[vsski]

Sorry for the late reply, I’m currently sidetracked due to some intense business travel through the rest of this month, but besides this would be happy to participate.
Of the options mentioned 1 strikes me as a good one as well as 3. In my case though, as I only started watching anime since the beginning of this year I don’t yet feel qualified to make any recommendations, I simply don’t yet know enough. I recommended Kon because I really liked what I saw, although am sad that I won’t be able to participate in the Kon vote and viewing due to my travel, but I have nowhere near the experience of Michael and Feihong.

Lain is a series I unlikely would have come across on my own and the more anime I see the more I realize how exceptional that series really is.

[Mr Sausage]

I recommended Kon because I really liked what I saw, although am sad that I won’t be able to participate in the Kon vote and viewing due to my travel, but I have nowhere near the experience of Michael and Feihong.

Oh, rats. Sorry. If I'd known you'd be unable to participate for the rest of the month, I'd've held off. But the discussion thread will remain open, so you can always join in after the fact.

And don't worry about lacking experience. I'm a total noob when it comes to anime myself. I just figure the point is to have a fun discussion rather than somehow tell the experts something they don't already know, so I jump right in and don't worry too much.

[therewillbeblus]

At least over here a lot of people are busy, traveling for school vacation week or outside during the heat wave, so I’m not surprised it’s been quiet - plus weekends usually are here. I’m hopeful more people will chime in next week

[vsski]

I recommended Kon because I really liked what I saw, although am sad that I won’t be able to participate in the Kon vote and viewing due to my travel, but I have nowhere near the experience of Michael and Feihong.

Oh, rats. Sorry. If I'd known you'd be unable to participate for the rest of the month, I'd've held off. But the discussion thread will remain open, so you can always join in after the fact.

And don't worry about lacking experience. I'm a total noob when it comes to anime myself. I just figure the point is to have a fun discussion rather than somehow tell the experts something they don't already know, so I jump right in and don't worry too much.

Thanks - I will definitely try and chime in on Kon when I’m back home, as I do like his work.
I really enjoyed the Lain discussions so definitely want to keep these exchanges alive.

[Michael Kerpan]

Back from (not quite) a week in Palm Beach (visiting friends). Always glad to recommend anime -- though I suspect I probably like less "momentous" shows/movies more than the rest of the folks here.

[Murdoch]

Count me in! I really liked the Lain discussion and have a decent sized list of series that I'd love to see this forum's opinions on. Bakemonogatari I already mentioned in the last suggestion thread, but also the original Berserk, Code Geass (although this one has fallen in my opinion of it), the absurdist comedies of Nichijou or Humanity Has Declined, the slice of life making-an-anime anime Shirobako, and any of the countless Isekai variations (In another world with my smartphone, anyone?).

[Mr Sausage]

Here're some random Criterions from the 70s.

[Mr Sausage]

So it's currently a three way tie. Anyone care to break it by tomorrow?

[therewillbeblus]

I voted for Buck and the Preacher, not just because I think it's an interesting film to discuss in locating progressiveness through emulating a surprisingly standard western rather than 'other'ing oneself from the genre in order to achieve its goal - which seems like a trap the filmmakers were in and elevated themselves from (and I think only knives and I have commented on this so far), but if people want to celebrate Harry Belafonte, it'd be interesting to also analyze this film based on his performance as contrasted with his persona

[feihong]

Won over by therewillbeblus interesting description, I now want to see Buck and the Preacher.

[Mr Sausage]

Five random films from the collection.

[Mr Sausage]

Here we go.