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garote"The Demon Haunted World" - The title makes it sound like a book of ghost stories, or some bad science fiction, but it's actually Carl Sagan's treatise on the scientific method, and how it interacts with nature, religion, ethics, politics, sex, education, economics, and everything else. In my opinion, this is the dissertation that Carl Sagan's entire life's work led up to, and his best gift to future generations. I can't recommend it enough. I give it two thumbs way up. There's an abridged version floating around too - try tackling that first, then the full version in pieces later on. There's a lot to absorb.
"A Marketplace Special Report: What Enron Says About America" - An amusing, easily digestable production explaining the Enron collapse, and how it effects our current and future economy. It starts out in 'Economics For Dummies' mode, but builds steadily on that, and gets very interesting - and disturbing - later on. I give it two dollar signs up.
"Terry Pratchett: The Carpet People" - Cute kid's story. Miniature thumbs up.
"Irreversible" - Gaspar Noé's crazy reverse-order flick. A fairly punishing film. I was expecting something really clever near the end, to make up for the hell it put me through in the first two thirds. Nope. Wasn't worth it. Interesting visual stylization, but not that interesting. Thumbs down.
"Jello Biafra - The Machine Gun In The Clown's Hand" - I used to really enjoy Jello's lampooning of the very worst politics in this country, but I think I'm getting too old to appreciate the guilty pleasure. When he veers off course, and gets into personal anecdotes and general comedy, he's great though. Thumbs halfway up.
Heh heh. On the list: 'The Core', which the Onion sums up like so: "Lacking a giant set of jumper cables, the government employs a ragtag team of physicists and astronauts to plunge underground in a jerry-rigged $50 billion phallus built by Delroy Lindo."
"A Marketplace Special Report: What Enron Says About America" - An amusing, easily digestable production explaining the Enron collapse, and how it effects our current and future economy. It starts out in 'Economics For Dummies' mode, but builds steadily on that, and gets very interesting - and disturbing - later on. I give it two dollar signs up.
"Terry Pratchett: The Carpet People" - Cute kid's story. Miniature thumbs up.
"Irreversible" - Gaspar Noé's crazy reverse-order flick. A fairly punishing film. I was expecting something really clever near the end, to make up for the hell it put me through in the first two thirds. Nope. Wasn't worth it. Interesting visual stylization, but not that interesting. Thumbs down.
"Jello Biafra - The Machine Gun In The Clown's Hand" - I used to really enjoy Jello's lampooning of the very worst politics in this country, but I think I'm getting too old to appreciate the guilty pleasure. When he veers off course, and gets into personal anecdotes and general comedy, he's great though. Thumbs halfway up.
Heh heh. On the list: 'The Core', which the Onion sums up like so: "Lacking a giant set of jumper cables, the government employs a ragtag team of physicists and astronauts to plunge underground in a jerry-rigged $50 billion phallus built by Delroy Lindo."
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Re: But I must disagree!
Date: 2003-03-26 11:34 pm (UTC)Does there need to be an indication? The one difference between that transition and the others was the introduction of classical music, (Beethoven maybe?,) as we first see the 2001 movie poster. (incidentally, in conceiving this film Gaspar told Karl that he wanted to do Eyes Wide Shut, "the way Kubrick really intended it to be." So that was a kind of homage.)
Well, since he wasn't actually raping her, and since it was like a 14 minute continuous shot of film, I don't know how much we're supposed to expect from the brief glimpse of his penis aftewards, you know? But maybe I'm being too forgiving. And I mean that - the end of this movie can be taken either way.
Mediocre work - all I can say is, that's your opinion - and I love you for it. : )
Re: But I must disagree!
Re: But I must disagree!
Date: 2003-04-04 11:42 pm (UTC)Another friend of mine believes that the quasi-naked man in the first scene is the aged Pierre, post-prison.
Even acknowledging this, my own philosophical outlook about film and art in general exonerates artists from having to possess any kind of social responsibility at all. I believe in the absolute freedom to create and "say" whatever you want. Whether you can get it funded and feed yourself by doing so is another matter.
I am a lover of extremism, and I do believe that Gaspar has pushed the envelope with this picture. In my opinion, naked abject horror delivered in film is a respectable thing to accomplish in today's jaded world. (Although I do believe his overall message to clearly be anti-violence. Strange that movies about a bunch of peaceful people do not have the same effect on me.)
Re: But I must disagree!
Date: 2003-04-05 05:53 am (UTC)Re: But I must disagree!
Date: 2003-04-05 07:02 am (UTC)Re: But I must disagree!
Date: 2003-04-05 07:53 am (UTC)I wonder if my friend Beatings has seen it yet. He lives in pr0nland, er Portland... Or Scott, or Miles, or Ben, or Xima...
Re: But I must disagree!
Date: 2003-04-20 09:19 am (UTC)