Jul 11, 2024
What's your favorite film? We can have a spotify link on our profiles, which is informative, but I'm also curious as to what everyone watches.
Memento, Primer, Coherence, The Triangle, and ARQ all had a certain recurrence & multiple timeline theme to them which was really something to think about when you watch them. Minority Report (2002) for teaching about a dystopian future, and also about how even though 'science' and technology has nearly perfected society in this world, if you get in the way of somebody, especially someone who is powerful, they can frame you and wreck you in such a way that the entire society believes them and not you. The 'Saw' franchise unironically teaches you to be true to your word and and the consequences for fucking with certain people who you don't understand...also teaches about the power of teamwork and interpreting messages at times. Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels for the fun storytelling and converging timelines. Guy Ritchie did 'Sherlock Holmes' well too. Chinatown and Eyes Wide Shut for the feelings of despair that you get from unanswered / unanswerable rabbithole mysteries that you alone have stumbled upon that are far above what civil society conceives of being possible. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz did a good job of being fun, simple comedies with that sly British wit. Plenty of other films have different things that they do well in the way of narrative-building and aesthetics as well, but these are some of the big ones that were top of mind for me.
Shepitko's "Wings", probably. Khrushchev Thaw-era film about a demobbed pilot trying to navigate civilian life / motherhood, trying not to live in her dreams of the past. Well shot, very compelling. There's this really surreal quality that pops up at times, in these short little sequences, that I find really interesting, almost unnerving. And not a whole movie but I really like the first hour or so of "Rebel Without a Cause". Just very colourful, and James Dean has a great charisma.
"Lilya 4-ever" would likely be it at the moment. A gritty/realist film set in Russia that manages a fine line between nihilism and humanism. Perhaps the end is a bit given to melodrama, but reasonably so given the events it was based upon.
cropdustderecho1 year ago
Memento was the last great one I watched. Sjostrom's "The Wind" will always reign supreme, though. Lilian Gish was a sensation.
quinnparker1 year ago
'Secretary'. It's adapted from Mary Gaitskill's short story in Bad Behavior, but strays from the source material a lot. Which is what makes it such a great watch. I doubt Gaitskill's original text would work well on the big screen. But I tend to just tell people I like Coppola's 'Lost in Translation'. Other than that, I'm not very well versed in film and cinema.
https://letterboxd.com/antoneggo/ Don't judge me <3
I prefer to divide movies into commercial vs. artistic. Obviously, that distinction fails when considering works like 2001. However, for my favorites, Le Quattro Volte and O Brother, where art thou? it works. You're welcome to use a similar classification scheme if it feels like an apples to oranges toss-up otherwise.
400 Blows, Jules and Jim, A Woman is a Woman, La Notte, The Rules of the Game, To Be or Not to Be, Winter Light, Paths of Glory, Last Days of Disco, Crimes and Misdemeanors