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Michael Kerpan wrote:BTW __ I have already seen Hamer's more recent O'Horten -- and this has a solid place on the decade's "loved films" list -- regardless of whether it makes it into the top 50 or not.

Was just about to recommend O´Horten to those who liked Kitchen Stories myself. It´s my favourite Hamer along with En Dag til i Solen.

Speaking of Norwegian filmmakers, I would also like to recommend Hans Petter Moland´s The Beautiful Country, based on a story by producer Terrence Malick. The movie is about a Vietnamese boy who travels from Vietnam to Texas in search of his father. It has a terrific score by Zbigniew Preisner, a very good Nick Nolte, but the revelation here is newcomer Damien Nguyen who carries the entire film with a very moving, sensitive performance.

I hope O'Horten comes out on DVD -- as my kids weren't around to see this -- and I think they would really enjoy it!

It reminded me a little of Kaurismaki -- but it had a much sweeter (in a good way) tone.

Already out in the UK, comes out in the US on September 22.

I also enjoyed Kitchen Stories. Hamer in this film demonstrates a gift for creating comedy out of his mise-en-scene, with some of his set-ups having an intrinsic comic tension.

This reminds me of another excellent comedy which I don't think has been mentioned, but which is out in R1: Fernando Eimbcke's Lake Tahoe. It's a stretched-to-breaking-point shaggy dog story (the simple task eternally forestalled of many a nightmare) in masterful cinemascope. His previous Duck Season is also very funny, though less visually impressive, and has a great post-credit punchline.

Michael Kerpan wrote:I have Kitchen Tales sitting around -- somewhere -- waiting to be seen. Maybe tonight. Thanks for the reminder.

BTW -- a note to all -- if Kumakiri's Nonko 36-sai (Nonko, 36 years old) happens to show up anywhere in your vicinity (probably not likely, except at a festival-y sort of setting), do check it out. A very good film about a washed-up Grade B model/starlet moved back home with her parents in a mountain town (where her father is the priest at a Shinto shrine). A goofy younger guy shows up -- with the hare-brained scheme of selling baby chicks at the upcoming shrine festival (which requires local yakuza permission, which he is NOT going to get). Kumakiri's very fine Hole in the Sky from several years back got ignored -- so I fear the same will happen with this. (Alas, the Japanese DVD is not subbed).

I've very excited for Non-ko and especially for Sakai's ballyhooed performance. Kumakiri looks like a very interesting director, but I haven't seen any of his work yet.

Michael Kerpan wrote:I hope O'Horten comes out on DVD -- as my kids weren't around to see this -- and I think they would really enjoy it!
It reminded me a little of Kaurismaki -- but it had a much sweeter (in a good way) tone.

I don't see O'Horten as especially kid-friendly, as it's a largely silent film based around an Odd character who has a number of strange, unexplained episodes, while foregoing any real central narrative. The main conceit is that O'Horten has just retired from driving trains and is now out of sorts as to what comes next in his life. I could see kids getting real bored by the detached feel, measured pace and minimal plot. Though there are a few brief bits of absurdist visual comedy (which the director calls moments of magic realism).

I was struck by how much it was a silent film and largely held together by the craggy visage of Bard Owe as the lead character Horten. I attributed this to the taciturn Scandinavian character, but in one of the supplemental interviews, the director mentions how the lead actor reminded him of Buster Keaton, so I guess it's Scandinavia by way of Buster Keaton, as cultural influences come around and become intertwined.

The Artificial Eye disc contains 3 interviews with director Bent Hamer.
The first is with a fairly annoying interviewer who gives his interpretations and opinions on O'Horten and Hamer's and intents, and then Hamer tends to briefly agree or disagree. The questioner really needs to learn how the art of asking open questions, without his involving his own presumed answers, in order to get more detailed and unexpected answers. And it's not that enlightening to hear the origins of various ideas or images.

The third interview on the disc is a continuation of the first interview, but with the film's composer, a youthful John Eric Kaada, joining them. Hamer and Kaada give lengthier and more interesting answers during this segment. I presume this was recorded at a college or perhaps a film festival, as there is a live audience and the three men on stage all have a beer in front of them.

The middle interview is with Hamer, conducted in English, and deals more with his entire career, and is the most interesting.

I know that I have Kitchen Stories around here somewhere, but it might be hard to find, as I probably purchased and kevyipped it 4 years or so ago.

My "kids" are now all in college -- but in their younger days even watched (of their own free will) things like Ozu's Dragnet Girl (with untranslated intertitles). so, I don't see O' Horten as being too challenging. ;~}

Lemmy Caution wrote:

Michael Kerpan wrote:I hope O'Horten comes out on DVD -- as my kids weren't around to see this -- and I think they would really enjoy it!

Netflix says it is coming out, R1, on the twenty-second.

knives wrote:Netflix says it is coming out, R1, on the twenty-second.

Just pre-ordered the O' Horten DVD. ;~}

Generation Kill – This is what I want from a swapsie: a great viewing experience that I would have taken a long time to get around to otherwise, since most TV is below my radar (it has to be, given my Hokusai tsunami kevyip). It’s the invasion of Iraq through a Wire filter. It’s only seven episodes, so ultimately it doesn’t have the novelistic sweep of The Wire, and there’s understandably less character and thematic range, but it’s a terrific series nonetheless.

One of the most interesting things about it is the way the narrative is constructed. The ‘arc’ (to use the odious, modish term) is determined not by the characters’ stories, but, almost arbitrarily, by external events. Primarily, the passage of time between the invasion of Iraq and –ahem- “mission accomplished”, the taking of Baghdad, and secondarily, the time spent with the Recon marines by the embedded reporter. But this reporter isn’t presented as the viewers’ ‘eyes’ in any conventional sense, and although he learns some stuff along the way (including, in a moment that’s beautifully thrown away, that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq) he doesn’t pick up any big Life Lessons or go through a neatly structured Personal Crisis synchronised with the Historic Events All Around Him. In fact, none of the characters undergo that kind of structured experience, even among the team that’s nominally the focus.

So for some this series might be dramatically unsatisfying, and although it’s naturally cynical about a lot of the events depicted, it’s not a satire either. It’s an extremely detailed slice of life, and the pleasure comes from the depth and texture of those details, including details of behaviour and language.

Although I liked it a lot, I’m probably not going to vote for it, because unlike some participants I can’t really think of something like Generation Kill as a ‘film’ in the terms I’m operating under. I’ve voted for television works in the past, but they’ve tended to be one-off self-contained movies (Elephant, La Cabina) or major works by significant film directors (Berlin Alexanderplatz, La maison des bois, Heimat, The Decalogue), and most of those I saw on film rather than TV anyway. Also, a vote for Generation Kill would feel a lot like I was really voting for The Wire, which is (rightly) ineligible. Still, a great series, highly recommended. Thanks, Aki.

Is Anybody There?
Boring "old man and young boy teach each other life lessons" yarn. Inconsistent performance from Michael Caine in the lead, quite appealing performance from Bill Milner also in the lead. Anne-Marie Duff is cute but one-dimensional in a supporting role, and Thelma Barlow treats the film to an intriguing character sketch that the clunky script fails to flesh out. For a film about the meaning of death and the wisdom of the aged, the "older" peripheral characters really do come off as condescending stereotypes.

Saw Kitchen Stories -- and enjoyed it -- but not as much as O' Horten.

GringoTex wrote: The Lives of Others - Can't believe how bad and overcooked and unimaginative this is. There's nothing more boring than artists nailing themselves to the cross in their own artwork, and this has it in spades.

I almost forgot about this insufferable pile of dung. Those Germans have to come up with a Wiedergutmachungsschnitzel to make up for this one. If you have the balls to send this vile piece to the Oscars, I hold them all responsible. They've taken 21st century warfare in a whole new direction. Sweet revenge.


Who's Camus Anyway? (Yanagimachi, 2005).

Love it.

Innocence (Hadzihalilovic, 2004).

Love it.

Kitchen Stories (2003), Factotum (2005), O' Horten (2007).

Love 'em all.

(no room for nuance today)

I saw Chris Eigeman's writing/directing debut, Turn the River, yesterday and loved it. Clearly written as a showcase piece for the eternally underutilized Famke Janssen, here she plays a not particularly bright woman without any pandering on the part of the actress or filmmaker-- she just is what she is, a woman of limited means doing her best as things spiral out towards their inevitable conclusions. Some brilliant Catholic moments play very well for the lapsed and loyal in the audience, and Terry Kinney from Oz has a hilarious side role as a hopelessly cred-less underworld figure. His brief diatribe against pool is a riot ("It's so awful that it doesn't even make you want to get any better at it!"). Also, who knew Janssen was so good at pool? She clearly performs all her own moves, including one ridiculous trick shot. This one has a few first time director hiccups, but on the whole it works marvelously and will be placing comfortably on my list.

I put some screen grabs for Kumakiri's Nonko 36-sai (Nonko, 36 Years Old) on the screen captures thread. I really have3 to say that this has left a pleasant lingering impression.

Platform - Wow what a masterwork. Jia composes in longshot like Tati. My own ignorance about the 1980s transition in China was a bit maddening. One of the most thrilling uses of pop music in cinema I've seen.

Agreed on Turn the River. Like a movie from the '70s.

GringoTex wrote:Platform - Wow what a masterwork. Jia composes in longshot like Tati. My own ignorance about the 1980s transition in China was a bit maddening. One of the most thrilling uses of pop music in cinema I've seen.

I'm pretty sure this will be in my top 10. Too bad the original (longer) version got (totally) suppressed (by Jia himself) ;~}

Love Songs - And I thought it was impossible to fuck up a musical filmed in the streets of Paris. Not only is his subject ugly (and Honore claims to be shocked that audiences would find his protagonist unlikeable), he films them badly. Really, how do you render such gorgeous subjects as Louis Garrel and Clotilde Hesme so unappealing? He shoots the film in the same streets that Godard shot A Woman is a Woman, even attempting to copy shots from the original. We all suffer for the comparison.

Kwon Chil-in Double Feature:

Singles (2003) -- Although this is in essence just a procession of well-worn clichés (with a twist here and there), it works beautifully. It's so light as to be almost frothy, despite hovering around some potentially weighty issues. It even pokes fun at itself in a couple of places; when Na Nan (Jang Jin-yeong) has been dumped by her boyfriend and disconsolately wanders out to a bus stop, she thinks to herself "in the movies, this is where it always rains," which it promptly does. That may sound sappy, but this scene and others, and moreover Jang's entire brilliant performance, make this a bright, lively relationship comedy and prevent it from turning into just another emotionally heavy melodrama. There are parallel storylines, given approximately equal weight. One follows Jang, a quirky would-be fashion designer on the verge of turning 30, who is having a career crisis while at the same time entering cautiously into a relationship with a Prince Charming she met by chance. The other follows her friend Dong-mi (Uhm Jeong-hwa), also having a career crisis (although hers is decidedly less passive), whose very active and free love life is suddenly sidetracked when she

Spoiler

impulsively sleeps with her close friend/roommate and gets pregnant.

Even though no new cinematic ground is broken in either story, both play out beautifully, and I recommend this film highly.

Hellcats (2008) -- Evidently trying to duplicate and expand on his success with Singles, Kwon badly misses the mark in his third feature. Rather than two equally-weighted and interesting stories, Hellcats (the Korean title translates to Some Like it Hot) crams four separate stories into its two hour running time, with only one of them given any depth at all. The stories center on an unorthodox family of unorthodox women sharing an apartment: a 40-year-old (Lee Mi-sook) who is unexpectedly entering menopause; her teenage daughter Kang-ae (Ahn So-hee) whose struggles to interest her ambivalent boyfriend lead her to question her own sexual identity; and her (much younger) sister (Kim Min-hie), who is (stop me if you've heard this before) a quirky would-be screenwriter having a career crisis while at the same time entering cautiously into a relationship with a Prince Charming she met by chance. The story of how these three women interrelate might have been interesting, but it's dusted off in two or three short scenes of them bickering or otherwise failing to connect. From a screenplay perspective, they may as well have been strangers in three apartments; this is an opportunity missed. The wonderful Lee Mi-Sook is completely wasted in her abbreviated story, which really leads nowhere. Kang-ae's story holds the most promise, and is very daring by the standards of mainstream Korean cinema, but like her mother, she's mostly relegated to the sidelines, popping up in short scenes with long gaps in between. (Kang-ae's character could be thought of as a maybe-bisexual version of Jia-Jen, the youngest daughter in Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman, who is similarly given short shrift by her director.) Most of the film is devoted to the lively and engaging Kim, and she's quite good, but her story and role are almost identical to those of Na Nan in Singles, right down to the details (both Prince Charmings, for example, make and begin to execute plans to take our heroines to the US where they won't have to work and can return to school, thus resolving their career crises). Na Nan's story was engaging, but not enough for a second go-round; and even if it were, there's no way Kim could hope to compete with the effervescent Jang, who won her second Blue Dragon Award (national Best Actress) for her role in Singles, becoming a national sensation in the process.

Sadly, Jang died earlier this month at the age of 35 (37 in Korean reckoning); she had suffered from stomach cancer for the past year. Even her death played out like a Korean movie, with an improbable love story at its center. I expect the studios are already dickering for the film rights to her story. I suppose that if Kwon ends up directing the inevitable movie, Jang will be portrayed as a quirky actress struggling with a career crises while at the same time entering cautiously into a relationship with a Prince Charming she met by chance. And it might even work.

Agree with you regarding Love Songs, Gringo. Awful acting, tuneless songs, derivative mise-en-scene, ugly lensing and a script that doesn't make a lick of sense (and doesn't succeed on an 'experimental' level either). I'm absolutely at a loss as to why people like it.

Vinyan - Interesting visual structure and sound design are wasted by one of the most ludicrous, implausible, self-consciously 'serious' scripts ever. Overblown symbolism and unintentional laughs result.

After much deliberation, my swapsie is Munyurangabo. It's a little gem of a film about two teenagers living in the wake of the genocide in Rwanda. Robin Wood wrote a nice little appreciation here. The DVD by the distributor and film club Film Movement will be released to non-members on October 6. I agree with the earlier sentiment that it is an underrated DVD label; criminally overlooked.

Film Movement is fantastic. I've pimped them before, but The Forest for the Trees (one of my swapsies) and Something Like Happiness are both released by that label, and you should all watch them!

And Who's Camus Anyway?. I think this makes Film Movement king of the swapsies.

It has a "DVD club" style mail service as well. Sign up and, if I'm not mistaken, you get a FilmMovement DVD every month