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Cronenfly wrote:I don't remember enjoying Down With Love that much myself, but here's a fine defense from the Onion A.V. Club. It does assume that the film is loving homage rather than sneering condescension, however, and invoking The Good German and Far From Heaven in doing so does little for me personally, as I abhor both of those movies. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Far From Heaven is a much more appropriate target for scorn than Down With Love, as I felt Haynes' approach there was much more elitist/smug (unintentionally or not) with regards to its Sirkian source material. Haynes may be Sirk's biggest fan outside of Fassbinder, but in making everything that's implicit in Sirk so thuddingly explicit he ruined any value the exercise may have had. Then again, I'm not the biggest fan of Fear Eats the Soul either, but I still feel that movie easily outperformed Haynes' on every level. Safe is a much more successful picture in melding a Sirk-style woman's picture with concerns obviously closer to Haynes' chest. I just can't see why he made such a leaden, misguided museum piece like Heaven after Safe, but perhaps working on a smaller scale was more beneficial to his artistry than his larger productions as of late (that is, if you see a marked decline in his work from Safe onwards like I do). I know that this doesn't make me out to be much of a Haynes fan, but I still have hope that he can make another movie on the level of Poison or Safe (even Velvet Goldmine would more than suffice).

You’re so absolutely right about Safe being more Sirkian than Far From Heaven even though the latter borrowed a great deal from Sirk’s 1950s cinemascape. It remains Haynes’ greatest film.

I remembering admiring Far From Heaven mainly for its dizzyingly gorgeous colors, evoking shadowy moods so perfectly, so painterly and Julianne Moore’s impeccable performance. I admit I was left sobbing after the finale dissolved into cherry blossoms – it was that damn silent farewell at the train station and the lilac scarf against the dead-of-the-winter grayness that cracked my tear ducts. Haynes’ handling of the “gay bomb” was interesting but Sirk’s was tons more in Magnificent Obsession and what I think is the greatest American film ever made, All That Heaven Allows. Revisiting the latter recently, I found another one of the many surreal signs of the film’s gay overtones: “All I see is a good-looking set of muscles!” from one man to another. Am I the only one whose heart melt every time Jane Wyman let loose at that party with Rock Hudson? And the kisses they exchange there while the autumn leaves blowing across the glass ceilings? Great great movie, that one.

I've been rather the deadbeat on this list, especially after gunning for it in the early stages. Too busy with work and buying my first house. Thusfar, I've got a few yawn-inducing locks for my list:

NO DIRECTION HOME
MULHOLLAND DRIVE
THE NEW WORLD
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
ZODIAC
TIME OUT
OLD JOY
ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES
DANCER IN THE DARK
WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE
SHOTGUN STORIES

Like I said: zzzzzz No real vanguards here and my "to-see" list has become oppressively demotivating.

zedz, you will be happy to know that I expect my copy of WHO'S CAMUS ANYWAY to arrive in a day or so.

Otherwise, I might have to retract my early love for Desplechin. Subsequent viewings of CHRISTMAS TALE and KINGS & QUEEN are only reinforcing the talents of the performers while making the script and direction seem a bit leaner than I'd thought.

Michael wrote:
You’re so absolutely right about Safe being more Sirkian than Far From Heaven even though the latter borrowed a great deal from Sirk’s 1950s cinemascape. It remains Haynes’ greatest film.

I remembering admiring Far From Heaven mainly for its dizzyingly gorgeous colors, evoking shadowy moods so perfectly, so painterly and Julianne Moore’s impeccable performance. I admit I was left sobbing after the finale dissolved into cherry blossoms – it was that damn silent farewell at the train station and the lilac scarf against the dead-of-the-winter grayness that cracked my tear ducts. Haynes’ handling of the “gay bomb” was interesting but Sirk’s was tons more in Magnificent Obsession and what I think is the greatest American film ever made, All That Heaven Allows. Revisiting the latter recently, I found another one of the many surreal signs of the film’s gay overtones: “All I see is a good-looking set of muscles!” from one man to another. Am I the only one whose heart melt every time Jane Wyman let loose at that party with Rock Hudson? And the kisses they exchange there while the autumn leaves blowing across the glass ceilings? Great great movie, that one.

And additionally, I found the characters in Far From Heaven a bit too naive for my taste. While Sirk's characters (at least Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows)come off more realistic, smart, and humane - but get caught up in ludicrous situations.

domino harvey wrote:The fact that you consider Lover Come Back "unwatchable" goes a long way towards explaining why you think Down With Love is "clever"

Really anything with Doris Day in it is unwatchable ... even The Man Who Knew Too Much is pretty hard to take thanks to her.

Here's an incredibly easy Swapsie for everyone: Godard's Une catastrophe - clocking in at a little over a minute, everyone should be able to find time for this (though if you're like me you may watch it 30 or so times in a row).

http://www.viennale.at/real/trailer/viennale08.mp4

This'll probably be the highest ranking of at least 3, maybe 4 Godards on my list (not sure if I'll find space for Éloge de l'amour).

Loved it! (Sadly the only Godard of this decade that I've seen thus far )

Good to hear, and you should definitely get on watching Notre Musique asap.

I really think Une catastrophe might be the most efficient movie I've ever seen - in the space of 60-some seconds it illuminates the bridge from pain to love in a manner that most people would be happy to accomplish half as well in a feature length. It's so consistently firing off ideas both horizontally and vertically, and every single one of them connects meaningfully. The almost abstract shot of the airplane/bombs stripped from the sound of its destruction crushes me every time, and the whole of the People On Sunday section is as beautiful as cinema gets to me.

Added Under The Sand on Netflix and bumped it to the top, will report back.

Memories of Murder - Zodiac who? It's extraordinary the range of emotions, ideas, and genres packed into this serial killer police procedural. Definitely making my list.

The Edge of Heaven - Strikingly bad. The same Cannes jury that gave the Palm D'or to 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days awarded the best screenplay to this garbage. Worst Cannes jury ever?

Inland Empire - Gave it a second spin and couldn't finish it off. Lynch's preoccupations simply don't interest me and his stream of consciousness aesthetics don't make up for it. Probably didn't help that I watched several Brakhage shorts the night before.

knives wrote:Where do you go that has as many as thirty people at a screening?

Single festival screening - so this was everybody in a five-hour radius who had ever heard of Tsai, plus another dozen or so hapless hangers-on or soon-to-be-ex-dates.

Ahh, one of those. Even for bigger (foreign) movies it's pretty rare for my theater to get more than twenty people so for a Tsai I thought never.

I wonder whether people have been able to see Corneliu Porumboiu's new movie Police, Adjective. After seeing it a second time, I now have no problem putting it at the top of my 2000s list. It's incredible that something so original and satisfying could be made nowadays.

I saw Police Adjective once, sleep-deprived, and thought it was just okay, despite loving 12:08 quite a bit. I thought its points were too obvious, and it ended up being kind of a one-liner. Still, it's just as watchable as 12:08. Anticipating that second screening.

Will anyone else have Brougher's masterful Stephanie Daley on their list?

Has anyone seen Heavenly Forest (Tada kimi wo aishiteru)? It was recommended to me but I can't yet justify plunking down the money to buy it outright...not available on netflix, it seems.

LQ wrote:Has anyone seen Heavenly Forest (Tada kimi wo aishiteru)? It was recommended to me but I can't yet justify plunking down the money to buy it outright...not available on netflix, it seems.

Some nice features (such as Aoi Miyazaki's performance), but not especially well-written or well-shot. There is now a fairly inexpensive HK DVD version.

Thanks, Michael.

Some Aoi Miyazaki films I can recommend --

Hanawa's Hatsukoi (First Love, 2006). Set in the early 60s, this film about youthful criminals evokes the French New Wave in a number of ways. Not perfect, but interesting and stylish.

(Hiroshi) Ishikawa's -- Su-ki-da (2005) Also not perfect, but mostly very good (especially the first half.

Otani's Nana (2005) -- Very good pop fare, with some really nice performances. Miyazaki does quite well -- playing a seemingly simple character brilliantly. A fact some overlooked until they saw how much less her replacement for Nana 2 (Yui Ishikawa, a fairly decent young actress) made of the same character.

Hirakawa's Flowers in Bloom -- An overly busy script, but mostly pretty good.

Sakamoto's Children of the Dark -- An earnest, well-made "problem film" about child prostitution in Thailand. Not a cheery film -- and the Thailand tourist promotion people can't have been too happy about this. Reminds me of Ann Hui's Boat People (which also featured a somewhat naive Japanese person who gets into problems WAY over their head in South Asia) -- but not quite as artfully made.

Kudo's Shonen Merikensakku (the name of a rock band whose name translates as Bras Knuckles Boys) -- Probably the best of the lot -- hapless Aoi (a tyro music agent) is given the job of trying to get a washed-up 80s punk group back into shape (after an old video of theirs becomes a youtube hit). A subbed HK DVD just came out (but we have the unsubbed Japanese Blu-ray).

Sorta off-topic, but what for you were the best years for films this decade? My vote goes for '01 and '07 (oddly enough, two of the worst years of my life).

2005 by several landslides

My two favorite films of the decade came out in 2006 (INLAND EMPIRE and Syndromes and a Century), so that would be my favorite year (not to mention Colossal Youth, which is also up there).

New to the list project (and board, in general), I'm trying out the swapsie thing and netflixed all of them. The Baxter was the first one to come in. I liked it well enough, but thought that it spread itself too thin. It's terribly predictable, but I thought that much of the fun of it was watching it fall into place (and as others have mentioned, perhaps mocking the predictability of the genre). Though I like Williams' character the most, I thought that her presence was problematic, because it was just too obvious that she and Elliot should be together, and turned the whole film into a waiting game from them to come to their senses and live happily ever after together.

I would have picked The Forest for the Trees as my swapsie but I see it's taken, so instead I would go with La Cienaga.

Nice to see a fellow lover of Ade's magnificent debut... it's fantastic!

I'd say 2007 is my favourite year for films this decade.

Fierias wrote: as my swapsie but I see it's taken, so instead I would go with La Cienaga.

I second this. It currently sits in third place on my list.

As for my favorite year so far: 2005, followed closely by 2004.

You people like La Cienaga more than La mujer sin cabeza?

Far more.

Well, I still have to see The Forest for the Trees, but do you people like it more than Everyone Else?