People, they love blood. They love action. Not this talky, depressing, philosophical ILX 2014 Film Poll Thread - Voting closes Friday, Feb. 21st at Midnight EST.

blue ruin at least delivered the goods with respect to its genre & ambitions - tense, brutal & forlorn. nicely photographed, too. haunted by the image of the title auto crawling doomward through the fog. didn't vote for it though.

Oh yeah We Are The Best obv! Need to see that, loooooved Fucking Amal

Could Lars make it?

HATE THE SPORT

watched Manakamana. best part are the guys near the end tuning + playing their instruments. ice cream part good too.

morbz will be happy to hear that i watched it on my computer, put it on float-on-top mode, while i worked

35 minutes into Force Majeure and yeah, this has been maybe the best half-hour of cinema I've seen in a very, very long time, hope the rest holds up. The dinner scene!!!

Spoiler: it didn't.

I don't think I could count a film I'd fast forwarded parts of. The experience is the point, right? Not data gathering or passing a test. But, then, I found Manakamana pretty engaging.

35 minutes into Force Majeure and yeah, this has been maybe the best half-hour of cinema I've seen in a very, very long time

Winter Sleep wasn't that long ago.

I don't think I could count a film I'd fast forwarded parts of. The experience is the point, right? Not data gathering or passing a test. But, then, I found Manakamana pretty engaging.

that's why Manakamana wasn't in my top ten. I didn't touch Norte....

Fast forwarding doesn't necessarily = data gathering. If the points the films make can be gained by fast forwarding through its fine. That kind of rarefied experience of slow films is overrated - and I speak as someone who can sit through them religiously and all.

Every now and then if the slowness isn't really doing anything I'll fast fwd.

If a film made me fast forward I consider that enough of a deficiency in the film (or in me) that I wouldn't vote for it in a poll. The real q is voting for films that you'd never want to see again (not bc you're afraid to ruin the magic but bc it would be too tedious and boring).

Obv when you're 100% representing every new film you saw in a year you don't have the luxury of being so picky.

I have less and less interest in owning DVDs, in part because I'm forever watching new movies or catching up with older ones.

Spoiler: it didn't.

― Eric H., Tuesday, February 24, 2015 11:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

uh it totally did, in the hypothetical ballot it's a close 2nd behind winter sleep now. extraordinary. redolent even of b****l maybe

If the points the films make can be gained by fast forwarding through its fine.

Wow, I really don't agree. The slowness is always doing something! If it's that painful, it's not the movie for you.

I was one of the "Vic + Flo" voters - weirdly affecting flick.

alltime disgusting savage thread now

but V+F IS weirdly affecting!

xxxp

"Manakamana" is one for the to-see list - hopefully it's either on iTunes or my local theater will get it sometime this year.

If you got Netflix, you can watch it.

The slowness is always doing something! If it's that painful, it's not the movie for you.

― Cherish, Tuesday, February 24, 2015 5:06 PM (1 hour ago)

otm. if you had to ffwd a movie to get through it, you have to admit you didn't like it, maybe didn't "get it".

idea of films as pledge-scented "background music" is interesting, though. i remember putting on linklatter's waking life as endlessly repeating workplace company before i ever sat down to watch it properly. got more out of it in the former context than the latter, but that doesn't make me think less of it.

Using a movie as background vs fast forwarding. What's the difference?

in both cases you didn't feel like playing attention for any number of reasons

background movie on endless repeat = eventual saturation, like over 20 plays. ffwding = throwing in the towel, moving on.

ambient music vs close attention vs needle-dropping to get a feel

Sitting through geometry class all semester is also saturation, but it's still a fucking chore.

Different media with different expectations, but with histories I often skip ahead if the argument I'm reading is otiose and dull. Nine out of ten times I'll go back because I feel more guilt about not reading books in their entirety, but that's the book's fault, not mine. If the book's not holding my attention in places but gripping me in others, it's gonna get a mixed review. Same applies for movies. It's very rare that I don't finish a movie.

The way I look at it, if I have to fast forward through a Tsai or Manakamana sequence in which the only movement in five minutes are eyelids fluttering it's because I'm so damn committed to the movie. If I weren't paying attention, I'd let the thing play.

lol

oh yeah, i'm not saying there's anything wrong w/ ffwding to get through. do what you gotta do. just that if i'm ever forced to such a recourse, i wouldn't claim to like the movie.

Was it Kiarostami who advocated for movies you drift in and out of sleep while watching?

redolent even of b****l maybe

Babbel?

manakamana in the theaters held me rapt. it's great.
and i also vouch highly for films you drift in and out of sleep during! It's the only way i've seen several of my fave films, including most everything by weeraseethakul and half of kurosawa

My friend spent approximately two-thirds of the running time of La Commune dozing off and she counted it among her favorite recent films at the time.

Yes, seeing a film half awake, half asleep can often be a very appropriate response.

Although I 'know' there's nothing wrong with fast-forwarding through a film - cultural products are there to do with as we please -I never actually do it myself. But was pleased to hear Ceylan in a recent interview acknowledging that home viewing is a totally different activity from cinema viewing, and that his audience are free to make use of the pause button, and watch in installments. Sometimes the eyes need to take a break from looking, looking, looking.

Something like that. I put La Commune in my ballot. All-time.

I know Berlin Alexanderplatz was made for TV however it has v cinematic qualities and for most people who have seen a decent amount of Fassbinder its all time. We also know there is no way in which you wouldn't watch it by anothing other than installments. The ICA put a v silly screening of it over two days.

If the points the films make can be gained by fast forwarding through its fine.

Wow, I really don't agree. The slowness is always doing something! If it's that painful, it's not the movie for you.

― Cherish, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think in Zidane and Le Quattro Volte my reaction was this is good; I could see what this was doing. otoh actually I felt that I got as much out of a section - experience exhausted? - and so fast forwarded to what you think is the next bit. Perfectly valid, not a sign of pain.

Similarly we can all skim through a section of a book we like bits of. No need to play a blame game if you haven't dutifully finished.

I find I am paying more attention when I fast fwd. Its a different way of engaging with a film, more active.

that Daft Punk film where it's just two robots walking in slow motion through the desert was only easy to watch if you watched it at 5x speed.

Was it as good as Winter Sleep.

srsly some of you need to go the fuck to hell

or EMP.

are you flexing this tortured logic in prep for voting for Hillary?

http://i.imgur.com/tIIxLi9.jpg

srsly some of you need to go the fuck to hell

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius),

save me a seat!

If I fast forward through Inferno I'll get to Paradiso quicker.

Then again:

The only true paradise is a paradise we have lost

The Lego Movie felt like mainlining Fanta

I watched the first 45 minutes of LEGO last night, and it was like being beaten about the face and neck by a clever 13-year-old the day he learned what satire is.

then you fast-forwarded the rest

/is 13