amateurist, i have a question,

This has turned out to be the most amicable film thread ever.

But I forgave a lot of his sins after Dogville, which is my favorite movie of the last couple years.

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huh? what advice do you want?
-- Amateur(ist) (amateurist@gmail.com), June 27th, 2001.

Did Amateur!st turn back time just to show what awesome advice-giving power he wields???

er xpost

am what made u angry abt dancer in the dark? is there a thread? isnt there a truly lovable scene of dancing spinning and ageing on courtroom tables? fucking w the bailiff?

Whoever slammed Pvt Idaho for "Keanu presence" is senseless. The film wouldn't work if he didn't have presence.

and i kind of like miss congeniality.

Amateurist would you say that the common thread of the three films you hate most is that they cynically attempt to provoke certain reactions/force certain emotions out of you?

I've seen this criticism applied to all three. I haven't seen "In The Company of Men" but I quite like the other two.

I finally saw MOPI and don't get the love (where it exists). The hopped-up straight-from-Shakespeare scenes were fantastic, but nothing else clicked.

i realize this sort of reflexive self-mediation is also the type of cinema-crit that ams dislikes.

The Ladies' Man (Jerry Lewis)
Light is Calling (Bill Morrison)
Un Chant d'amour (Jean Genet)
Electrocuting an Elephant (Thomas Edison)
Too Funky (Thierry Mugler/George Michael)
Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais)
Elephant (Alan Clarke)
Le Tempestaire (Jean Epstein)
To Beep or Not to Beep (Chuck Jones)
Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein)

i really want to see "le tempestaire" having seen a bunch of silent epstein films. apparently it's coming out on dvd soon.

...

"Amateurist would you say that the common thread of the three films you hate most is that they cynically attempt to provoke certain reactions/force certain emotions out of you?"

well for "in the company..." and "dancer" maybe. i probably had a different problem w/ "elephant."

although as noted above i am not averse to feeling strong emotions at the movies. i guess i didn't feel like anything else but a "strong reaction" was being stirred up in me. they didn't leave me with anything to chew on except the "point." i guess i would say they were little more than provocations. but i'm not sure i'm entirely comfortable with that form of dismissal.

i don't really know if that's the kind of "cinema crit" that i dislike. (is there a kind of cinema crit i dislike? i mostly dislike poor arguments, unreasoned ones. which characterizes a lot of writing in general.) i'm not quite sure i know what you're saying, actually. what jokes are the makers of those films making that i should try to be in on? or imagine myself to be in on?

btw i'm not saying no one should enjoy these films or that they enjoy them for the wrong reasons. i just happened to have strong reactions against them (i walked out on one of them and considered doing so for the other ones).

Yeah, I've only watched the two on this compilation, and both lead me to believe he's a supple awesome filmmaker.

http://www.american-buddha.com/ala.357.jpg

"Join the club!!!

that kino avant-garde thing is out already? i need to buy that.

if you ever get a chance to see epstein's 'faithful heart' or 'finisterre'... run don't walk.

Oh, just the whole kids shooting other kids on camera thing, esp. post Columbine. I'm not saying that the film fits the criticism, just that I read some allegations to that effect in reviews at the time.

The film that has made me feel like I'd been psychologically assaulted most strongly is probably Requiem for a Dream. I think I liked it though.

tim i suspect if you saw requiem again youd feel miles away, but its funny, storyboarding infection and allegory