Similar posters

One of these posters is sort of like the other.

Oscar noms

Which of these do not belong?

1. “An Education”
2. “Avatar”
3. “The Blind Side”
4. “District 9”
5. “The Hurt Locker”
6. “Inglourious Basterds”
7. “Precious”
8. “A Serious Man”
9. “Up”
10. “Up in the Air”

Or which ones do?
If you look at the five films for best director you get a better idea of what the five would be if there were only five.

1. Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”)
2. James Cameron (“Avatar”)
3. Lee Daniels (“Precious”)
4. Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”)
5. Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”)

Miller on Hoffman

Arthur Miller gave a lecture on politics and the art of acting back in 2001. He had this to say about running into Dustin Hoffman on the street in 1966.

- I remember running into Dustin Hoffman on a rainy New York street some years ago; he had only a month earlier played the part of the Lomans' pale and nervous next door neighbor Bernard in a recording session with Lee Cobb of Death of Salesman. Now as he approached, counting the cracks in the sidewalk, hatless, his wet hair dripping, a worn coat collar turned up, I prepared to greet him thinking that with his bad skin, hawkish nose and adenoidal voice some brave friend really ought to tell him to go into another line, of work. As compassionately as possible I asked what he was doing now, and with a rather apologetic sigh he said, after several sniffles, "Well they want me for a movie." "Oh?" I felt relieved that he was not to collapse in front of me in a fit of depression, "what's the movie?"

"It's called 'The Graduate,' he said.

"Good part?"

"Well, yeah, I guess it's the lead."

In no time at all this half-drowned puppy would have millions of people at his feet all over the world. And once having ascended to power, so to speak, it became hard even for me to remember him when he was real. Not that he wasn't real, just that he was real plus. And the plus is the mystery of the patina, the glow that power paints on the human being.

Best films of the Decade

Best films of the Decade lists:

AV Club
Time Out London
Time Out New York
Glenn Kenney's top 70
TIFF Cinematheque [and here]
Michael Atkinson
Reverse Shot Decade list
Flicks top 50
IndieWire Best of the Decade Poll
Sydney Film Happenings
The Guardian 100 best
Cinema Becomes Her
Tim Robey [The Guardian] Top 100
Dusty Somers
Michael Hawley
Jon Bowman Fin de Cinema
Ty Burr's 33 best
Scott Foundas
Mike D'Angelo
Shooting Down Pictures
Radiator Heaven
Wonders in the Dark Top 50
Sight & Sound 30 Key Films

This is an ongoing post that I'll add to as more film lists come along.

Toad

Toad - 1971

Cotton Wood Hill
A Life That Ain't Worth Living
Tank
They Say I'm Mad
Life Goes On [10 min of the song]
Pig's Walk
The One I Mean

Lost Island of VHS...

Deep End - Jerzy Skolimowski - 1971
This is one of the better 1970's cult films to remain unreleased on DVD. It is a darkly humorous, disturbing and ultimately tragic coming-of-age tale [sort of] about a teen-aged boy (John Moulder Brown) who gets a job in a gritty London bathhouse where he meets and falls in love with one of his female co-workers (Jane Asher). What starts as merely flirtatious becomes a bit more obsessive for the boy who seems too young and naive to understand the nature of such affairs.
What's striking about the film is the natural way the actors respond to one another and the unique setting. The direction, on the other hand, is actually quite tightly controlled showing the training director Jerzy Skolimowski received from the Lódz Film School, which in the 1960's was considered stylistically one of the most disciplined film schools in the world.*

Unique scenes - full of funny and interesting conflicts - arise again and again throughout the film making for a very entertaining story until its very strong ending.

The film gives the viewer a different view of 'swinging' London [complete with porn theatres and dark rainy streets] as well as one with a non-formulaic view or the that world.

VHS is super rare on this one but DVD-R's can be found on some web sites.

--------------
*[And tough to get into. It took Krystof Kieslowski three tries].

Older Film Discoveries 2009

Here are eleven great films I finally caught up with in 2009.

Day of the Outlaw [Andre de Toth, 1959] - Good drama and tough as nails characters that reside somewhere between Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah.
Mr Thank You [Hiroshi Shimizu, 1936] - A delightful almost plotless Japanese film that captures a moment in pre-war Japan.
The Misfits [John Huston, 1961] - Dated drama but somehow still powerful; especially considering the fate of the three leads.
Odd Man Out [Carol Reed, 1947] - Bleak and beautiful fate of a man no one wants to help - this film is perfect.
Pigs and Battleships [Shohei Imamura, 1961] - The mad post-war world of lowlifes and gangsters in Japan all running around together in a most entertaining film.
The Rabbit is Me [Kurt Maetzig, 1965] - East German film about a young woman who falls in love with a judge who is unwittingly handling her case.

Sopyonje [Kwon-taek Im, 1993] - A man's mad obsession with the purity of art leads to tragedy.
Il Sorpasso [Dino Risi, 1962] - A comedy that somehow manages to transcend humor and hit the viewer in the heart.
Two English Girls [Francois Truffaut, 1971] - Jules and Jim set in the Victorian era with two women and one guy.
Variety Lights [Frederico Fellini & Alberto Lattuada, 1950] - Early Fellini comedy with a cast of crazies - plenty of signs of the wild films to come.
Wichita [Jacques Tourneur, 1955] - Mythical western that unfolds beautifully.

Rohmer

Eric Rohmer 1920 - 2010

Man, I love Eric Rohmer films. His style is unmistakable. Talky but not preachy, humorous but not reaching for laughs, dramatic but not overly so. He presents people as relatively close to regular people with thoughts about relationships, ethical and moral behavior verbalized. In some ways he was the least celebrated of the French New Wave directors and yet his style is among the most unique and recognizable of any French filmmaker other than Jean Luc Godard.

Sixteen of his films fit neatly into three categories over five decades.
Six Moral Tales [60's and 70's] in which men almost leave the women they love for another but then come back.
Comedies and Proverbs [80's] in which [younger] women characters come of age and men are there to witness and talk with them about it.
Tales of the Four Seasons [90's] - Characters find their inner peace.

In between and after these series of films Rohmer often made films that had nothing much in common stylistically with his films including some that were unique historical narratives, such as Perceval, The Lady and The Duke and [his final film] Romance of Astrea and Celadon.

My favorites are:
My Night At Mauds
Claire's Knee
The Green Ray [aka Summer]
Full Moon in Paris
A Tale of Autumn.

But, really, I like all of his films to some degree or another. I have always savored each one of his films slowly because I didn't want to run our of new ones to watch. But, alas, there will be no more new ones to add to the list. However, there are a few I still have yet to see. Plus, it is a pleasure to go back and see the older films too.

The Auteurs has many links to articles on Rohmer and his films.

Police, Adjective

Conscience
Moral
Law
Police

Cinema 2009 Lexicon

Moments in movies 2009.
In the tradition of these guys I present some memorable moments in 2009 films.

Falling ash from the forest fire that seems to sprinkle down on the audience in Avatar.

Nicolas Cage and Val Kilmer in Bad Lieutenant stand looking on and time seems to freeze as an iguana standing on an office desk takes over the scene.

The loneliness of the future designer in Coco Before Chanel as she wanders down each night in the mansion looking to fit in only to escape back to her room.

Carrey Mulligan looking through the glove compartment of her 'fiance's' car in An Education coming to the harsh realization that things are not what they seem.

Paul Schneider sympathetically looks out the window into the winter yard at Abie Cornish in Bright Star recalling a similarly framed scene in Citizen Kane as he is about to reveal to her that the love of her life has died.

Using saliva to clean bullets covered in blood in The Hurt Locker.

Peter Capaldi in In The Loop: "Sorry, sorry, I know you disapprove of swearing so I'll sort that out. You are a boring F, star, star, CUNT!"

The violence and meditation of chopping wood in Revanche.

The two rice cooker gifts in 35 Shots of Rum that tie the film's beginning and end.

Isabelle Huppert scratches the back and belly of her daughter and son in Home as they sit in a field under a tree enjoying the one moment of peace they have had since the traffic took over the neighborhood.

A rabbi spouting lines from Jefferson Airplane in A Serious Man.

The cardboard cutout couple that George Clooney takes with him in Up In The Air to photograph in various locations representing the only favor he can tolerate to do for his family.

Arta Dobroshi's irrational and impulsive striptease in Lorna's Silence that leads to her making love to a man she has seemingly hated up to that point.

The night shootout in the forest in Public Enemies as light flickers off of trees and bodies fall.

Liam Neesen in Taken: "I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

The lovers in Jerichow - tragically - getting exactly what they wished for.

Hellen Mirren's explosively, dramatic, dinning room plate crashing scene in The Last Station that quickly turns from serious to humorous after she falls down and reveals that she is lying on a fork.

The explosive properties of nitrate film in Inglourious Basterds.

The fate of the family's art nouveau furniture in Summer Hours.

Penelope Cruz in Broken Embraces entering the room, looking at the video footage of herself, lip synching what she said when the scene was filmed - before turning and leaving the room.