the insert to the bfi VHS?
― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 6 May 2005 13:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 6 May 2005 13:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 6 May 2005 13:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 6 May 2005 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link
Sadly, my video is connected wrong, so I can't tape the overwhelming feast of films that C4 have lined up.
I get a lot of lines on the screen. I'm sure it's something very simple. Perhaps one of you will know what to do. Innit.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:01 (eighteen years ago) link
I said I liked Ten way up there. Its now one of my least favourite films on a second viewing. It completely panders to a western liberla view of the problems of Iranian society.
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:13 (eighteen years ago) link
anyway, the staggers rejected the article itself, which i ended up putting on a webzine somewhere, last summer. part of the ns's problem was the idea of iranian film -- like it was too far out.
and this is what bugs me: c4 saying 'the iranians are coming'. last night was the first time an AK film has been shown on ttv here. it's absurd, this timelag in film culture.
roll on the taiwanese cinema season in 2008.
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:25 (eighteen years ago) link
I haven't seen all the Abbas K films, but they all seem to involve non-medieval things like film crews and 4x4s, and I've never felt patronised. Perhaps I should TRY HARDER.
I have Ten on a laser disc. I will watch it one day.
I like the way all these films seem to lead into other films.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:26 (eighteen years ago) link
I don't see anything po-mo in these films.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:38 (eighteen years ago) link
I found the film a bit boring though.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:40 (eighteen years ago) link
You were up very late, Jerry the Nipper.
I tell you what I didn't think was very good, and that's Catterick. After which I went to bed until the 1.30 yodelling practice.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 09:50 (eighteen years ago) link
I like the fact that HMV has Tinto Brass in the World Cinema section. 'All Ladies Do It' is a personal favourite of mine.
You are right about festivals, there is an awful lot of dross shown, some of it Iranian. I saw one about landmine removal and burnt-out tanks and tortoises and it was REALLY boring. The director was there to witness the slow trickle of people walking out.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 10:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 10:11 (eighteen years ago) link
I guess from a festival/distributor nexus you go with the ones you trust the programmers of. Or ones which seem to be grateful just to have enough films (Dublin seemd very good at that). There is nothing more exciting than "discovering" a film, but how much of that excitement is literally down to the discovery.
My middle east = middle ages boils down to Olive Tress etc and mobile phones seen as being out of place and the centre of some pretty lame humour. It appeals to an exoticism in the reviewer, a return to nature (all that Fanon stuff). It is probably why Samira Makhlabaf has picked refugee communities or Afghanistan as topics where these juxtapositions are probably more apparent.
On your problem on "what to see" I solve by trying to restrict myself to theatrical release. Which is as arbritrary as anything. Liking certain distributors though seems to work. I am suspicious about Artificial Eye, but rathe rlike Metrodome/Tartan.
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 10:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 10:27 (eighteen years ago) link
(I think its interesting thinking about City Of God on thsi front, which I thought was great but at no point did I think that its greatness was much to do directly with its director.)
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 10:33 (eighteen years ago) link
anyway -- yeah. i think it was seeing 'city of god', and then seeing the likes of miranda sawyer repping 'the new brazilian cinema' on basis of same that sort of made me give up on keeping abreast, or doing so too closely. mainly cos i knew that in six months' time 'the new thai cinema' would be the stick with which to beat the formulaic hollywood cinema and the declining cinema of europe. i can enjoy 'city of god' now without feeling that, not knowing anything of pre-'city' cinema, i am missing out on something briliant.
i will programme a sidebar one day consisting of 'the permanent gardener', '21 grams', 'harry potter 3', and 'the ice storm' by way of demonstration of what i'm talking about.
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 10:39 (eighteen years ago) link
'The Cow' is on tonight. I might stay up late. I will have to have an early evening snooze though.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 07:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― frankiemachine, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 07:36 (eighteen years ago) link
I have seen a lot of pre CoG Brazilian Cinema (too much Cinema Nuovo than is strictly good for anyone*) and trust me with minor exceptions you ain't missing much.
Surely if Dogme taught us one thing, even when there is a specific artistic movement and manifesto stuff comes out with widely different qualities, so when the only link people have is nationality...
*ie Two films at least
― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 08:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 08:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 09:15 (eighteen years ago) link
The thing is, I really don't think this selection or Iranian films is represntative of what is generally on offer in Iran. Paris maybe...
― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 09:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 13:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_Rq, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 13:11 (eighteen years ago) link
-- Pete (pb1...), May 11th, 2005.
according to a completely untrustworthy friend of mine, iranian films are like most films worldwide: violent jingoistic action movies.
― N_RQ, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 13:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 13:22 (eighteen years ago) link
this is brilliant... unfortunately i am currently in a debunking mood and am very 'anti-confusion', but it's a brilliant observation anyway.
― N_RQ, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 13:25 (eighteen years ago) link
I haven't seen Melinda and Melinda, but I think Woody Allen is better than Abbas K.
I might not watch The Cow cos I'm bound to be disappointed.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 13:41 (eighteen years ago) link
I am, like many I guess, very quick to jump to a critical mindset without really justifying it. I fell asleep in Olive Trees at the cinema and saw a couple more Abbas K pastoral films along with some other Iranian films which I thought were much better. This has more than likely mutated into a seeming loathing of Abbas K, as a critical fallback to make me interesting. There are films where I love the stillness, the seeming boredom (L'Humanite springs to mind) but is that the film getting me at the right time? It is possibly a touch unfair on the film for me to go and see them when I am a bit tired, and then blame it for me falling asleep.
I think there is something remarkbaly deep yet also ridiculously banal about the quote Enrique just pulled. That will also probably depend on the moment.
― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 14:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_Rq, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 14:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 14:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― admrl, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 17:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 2 April 2007 19:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Some notes on the statements of filmmakers like Kiarostami, M Makhmalbaf and Marjane Satrapi in the current crisis:
http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/outsidetheframe/archive/2009/06/17/iran-losing-direction.aspx
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 18 June 2009 13:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Kiarostami speaks out on the arrests of Jafar Panahi and Mahmoud Rasoulof:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/iranian-filmmaker-speaks-out-on-prisoners/
― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 10 March 2010 18:19 (fourteen years ago) link
did anyone see no one knows about persian cats?
― egregious apostrophising (schlump), Friday, 26 March 2010 02:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Reading the Kiarostami open letter about Panahi was somehow painful: a true tightrope walking exercise.
― Marco Damiani, Friday, 26 March 2010 09:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Close-Up gets a week's revival in NYC today.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 26 March 2010 11:49 (fourteen years ago) link
"did anyone see no one knows about persian cats?"
I did. It's great.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Sunday, 9 May 2010 23:10 (thirteen years ago) link
man holy shit
― schlump, Monday, 20 December 2010 19:58 (thirteen years ago) link
ugh that's horrible
― =(^ • ‿‿ • ^)= (corey), Monday, 20 December 2010 20:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah that breaks my heart. Let's try to get him out of there!
― Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, 20 December 2010 20:51 (thirteen years ago) link
if anyone needs a helicopter jailbreak it's him
― =(^ • ‿‿ • ^)= (corey), Monday, 20 December 2010 21:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Movie is kind of broad and she plays a French-Tunisian rather thn a French-Irani but her perfomance is still good.
― after the pinefox (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 15 February 2023 00:59 (one year ago) link
Just finally watched Rasoulof’s There Is No Evil before it leaves MUBI. It is indeed very long but the first and last sections both make it worth your time.
― Think Fast, Mr. Mojo Risin’ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 11 March 2023 06:10 (one year ago) link