Good thread idea, hard to come up with anything at the moment. Peter Greenaway, maybe.
― Next Time Might Be Hammer Time (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 January 2021 23:36 (three years ago) link
Hard To Be A God was quite the ordeal
― or something, Saturday, 23 January 2021 23:51 (three years ago) link
I don't watch films anymore, but back when I did, anything by Terrence Malick.
― pomenitul, Saturday, 23 January 2021 23:55 (three years ago) link
all three of the films Charlie Kaufman wrote and directed
agree about Hard To Be.A God
― Dan S, Saturday, 23 January 2021 23:56 (three years ago) link
I thought it seemed cool but didn’t finish watching so yeah
― Next Time Might Be Hammer Time (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 January 2021 23:57 (three years ago) link
So we're talking about an innocent displeasure eh. Sounds like a Patricia Cornwell novel.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Sunday, 24 January 2021 00:49 (three years ago) link
Fassbinder, aside from Ali (which I adored)
― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:00 (three years ago) link
Fassbinder is tough. Ali is my favorite of his too
― Dan S, Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:06 (three years ago) link
One of my faves ever tbh.
― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:14 (three years ago) link
I suppose this applies to a lot of "difficult viewing." What comes to mind for me is Come and See, the Soviet WW2 film directed by Elem Klimov.
― Josefa, Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:27 (three years ago) link
Good call
― Next Time Might Be Hammer Time (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:32 (three years ago) link
Ali is incredible. also one of my favorites ever. godard makes these kinda movies for me. also, the 400 blows.
― satanist of size (map), Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:51 (three years ago) link
which i haven't recently seen. just one of those movies where it's like ok.. i get it. not for me. same with fellini tbh.
― satanist of size (map), Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:52 (three years ago) link
i don't agree on aguirre though or most herzog, just totally entrancing and enjoyable for me.
Every Kurosawa Samurai film.
― avatar of a kind of respectability homosexual culture (Eric H.), Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:56 (three years ago) link
;_;
― satanist of size (map), Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:57 (three years ago) link
Malick is my definitive "I get why this is good, but I'm just not into it" filmmaker.
― edited for dog profanity (cryptosicko), Sunday, 24 January 2021 02:07 (three years ago) link
I tried Stalker again last night but all that yellow/sepia made me sleepy. When I woke up it was regular colors but I'd missed too much. Will try again earlier in the evening. Maybe not.
― p.j.b. (pj), Sunday, 24 January 2021 02:47 (three years ago) link
Also listening to Russian talk made me sleepy. Doesn't happen with every other foreign language.
Ohhh, I just remembered a recent one: Hagazussa. There's a lot to appreciate and it's often beautiful to look at but I just found it...kinda repellent?
― Vladislav Bibidonurtmi (Old Lunch), Sunday, 24 January 2021 03:34 (three years ago) link
(I'm more often surprised by how much I legit enjoy classic films that I expect to be stuffy, boring, etc.)
― Vladislav Bibidonurtmi (Old Lunch), Sunday, 24 January 2021 03:36 (three years ago) link
I couldn't finish Hard To Be a God, partly because my mother had died the day before, but also I sensed after an hour or so that it wasn't going to have any point besides drowning the viewer in shit. Come and See is hard to take, but there's a point to sitting through it.
Stalker, Synecdoche New York and most Godard and Herzog are some of my favourites, though. I'm more likely to be bored by complicated plots than by slowness. Kurosawa I often find a little tedious.
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 24 January 2021 05:54 (three years ago) link
The Color of Pomegranates is sui generis but I got bored of it after around half an hour.
― wasdnuos (abanana), Sunday, 24 January 2021 06:04 (three years ago) link
When I finished Heaven Knows What I remember saying “that was brilliant and I never want to see it again”. Same for Enter the Void.
― assert (MatthewK), Sunday, 24 January 2021 09:13 (three years ago) link
and Hard to Be a God
"wouldnt watch again" is imo not at all the same thing here
― Qanondorf (darraghmac), Sunday, 24 January 2021 10:44 (three years ago) link
The Favourite was clearly doing something stylistically interesting with great performances but it left me pretty blank.
― JoeStork, Sunday, 24 January 2021 11:17 (three years ago) link
Duck Soup and Wiseman's NYPL documentary, but I managed to sit through all of Wiseman.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:12 (three years ago) link
I do not understand the question
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:24 (three years ago) link
"Guilty pleasure" is such an odious concept
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:25 (three years ago) link
I cannot imagine feeling guilty for enjoying a work of art or entertainment. Cigarettes, sure. a MOVIE???????
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:26 (three years ago) link
The whole way through The Favourite, I kept wishing I was watching the same story and the same cast with a different script and director.
The Revenant is my answer for this. There's obviously a huge amount of work and care gone into it, but it is a SLOG.
― trishyb, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:26 (three years ago) link
:( @ Duck Soup
― shivers me timber (sic), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:26 (three years ago) link
a lot of work and care went into tons of bad movies, it doesn't make them good or admirable. the only thing that matters is if the movie works. I agree that The Revenant is a slog and 100% not worth shooting out in the real frozen tundra
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:27 (three years ago) link
xp
I've always thought it's a completely wrong-headed term, and that a better description is "embarrassed pleasure." I can't imagine feeling guilty for liking a movie or song; there are, though, lots of movies and songs where I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit how much I like them.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:30 (three years ago) link
L'Avventura. I just could not muster up any fucks to give about those people
― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:31 (three years ago) link
I think the "guilt" in "guilty pleasures" acknowledges something is trash and therefore sanctifies it.We don't really have an equivalent phrase in English to recognize something is good outside of our personal tastes."difficult viewing" isn't quite it -- it could be really easy viewing for someone else!
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 18:42 (three years ago) link
I'm fine with "dumb pleasure."
― avatar of a kind of respectability homosexual culture (Eric H.), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:12 (three years ago) link
― flappy bird, Wednesday, February 3, 2021 6:25 PM
I can understand guilt when someone is getting some kind of pleasure from someone's pain or misery, even if it's a fictional character, especially if it's sexual. I can imagine people having lots of ethical questions about enjoying depictions of suffering. I remember seeing a guy saying he felt guilty laughing at the guy in Borat who is getting his vases smashed.
I've felt guilty for a very long time for enjoying things that are 80% mediocre or very poor and 20% vital. I've been trying to drop this shame but it's really about keeping the right amount of it in my life.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:13 (three years ago) link
Come and See is hard to take, but there's a point to sitting through it.
Can you share the point in a sentence or two, bearing in mind that I already know that war is bad and that people will often mistreat each other given the opportunity?
Solaris (the original) was not at all enjoyable; I watched it an hour a day for three days because I just couldn't take any more than that at a time. But sure, it's a classic example of something.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:16 (three years ago) link
Felt this way about that Blade Runner sequel a few years back.
― Darin, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:40 (three years ago) link
I like Prometheus better, tbqh.
― Darin, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:41 (three years ago) link
2001 (Kubrick) also in this category for me.
― Darin, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:42 (three years ago) link
if i didn't like it it's not good
― Dusty Benelux (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:47 (three years ago) link
Come and See is really intense and horrific, but I wouldn't say I find it hard to sit through. It's completely riveting.
― jmm, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:53 (three years ago) link
I really really want to enjoy Hard To Be A God but... Pffff
Also, having seen it twice now, I'm not 100% sure Parasite is quite all it's cracked up to be
― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 19:58 (three years ago) link
I can't recall the director of Hard To Be A god actually completed the film himself. Maybe he would have edited it down if he hadn't died?
I might have loved a much shorter version because some scenes look amazing. Brilliantly realized world.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 3 February 2021 20:21 (three years ago) link
what's my take on Cassavetes?
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 20:22 (three years ago) link
unperson, the "point" of Come and See is that even through all the atrocities the main character encounters, there's a scene near the end showing his ability to retain his sense of compassion and mercy. But I wouldn't tell anyone "you must sit through" any film, and this one is certainly tougher than most.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 4 February 2021 02:28 (three years ago) link
Also, Tarkovsky's Solaris is maybe his slowest movie. I'm sure time goes backwards at some point in the middle.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 4 February 2021 02:30 (three years ago) link
Battle of Algiers and The World of Apu
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 14 July 2021 21:57 (two years ago) link
Terrence Malick's 'The Thin Red Line' and 'The Tree of Life' have some beautiful sequences but they are slow and sleepy. Tree of Life is pretty much like being stoned even sober...to go from that family story to that dinosaur sequence was a big WTF...it looked cool though.
Read the 'The Thin Red Line' as a teenager, it eventually deserves to be made into a more conventional film I would think.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 14 July 2021 23:12 (two years ago) link
The Phantom Thread.
― KEEP HONKING -- I'M BOBOING (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 15 July 2021 00:26 (two years ago) link
Kinji Fuksaku's Graveyard Of Honor is an unflinching display in making your protagonist entirely irredeemable and seeing how that plays out, but without even a hint of dark humor around it. It's a pretty brilliant occasion of a filmmaker taking away the fig leaves that made his previous films work as entertainments, but god what an unpleasant experience.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 15 July 2021 10:12 (two years ago) link
Certainly didn't hate it, but I really don't get all the fuss over Minari. Poking around online after watching it this morning, I was a bit surprised that I couldn't find any significantly dissenting opinions on this one.
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Saturday, 6 November 2021 22:15 (two years ago) link
It wasn't great or anything but it was a lovely movie with a nice score and an underrated performance by Yeri Han, who played the Steven Yuen character's wife
Hard to Be a God was one of two films I've watched in the last several years that I couldn't finish. The other was Tetsuo: The Iron Man
― Dan S, Saturday, 6 November 2021 22:39 (two years ago) link
Tetsuo isn't that long though
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 7 November 2021 00:26 (two years ago) link
I know people love those films but I can't take the chaos and dysphoria of them, it's my own issue I know
― Dan S, Sunday, 7 November 2021 00:29 (two years ago) link
I did like Hard To Be A God and Stalker but not as much as I wanted to and have to admit I was often bored. But I really admire that Hard To Be A God created such a convincing setting.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 7 November 2021 00:36 (two years ago) link
yeah it did, it was memorable
― Dan S, Sunday, 7 November 2021 00:39 (two years ago) link
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Hard to Be a God until this thread.
― circa1916, Sunday, 7 November 2021 01:01 (two years ago) link
I was psyched to see Tetsuo many years ago, but yeah, for a short film it sure felt like an eternity.
― circa1916, Sunday, 7 November 2021 01:02 (two years ago) link
L'Avventura. I just could not muster up any fucks to give about those people― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Wednesday, February 3, 2021 1:31 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink
― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Wednesday, February 3, 2021 1:31 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink
Seconded; also La Notte (I found myself wishing these people would just have babies and repress their worldliness and wanderlust in the name of parenthood).
As for Minari, did the filmmaker truly mean to present an invasive plant from a different ecosystem as a metaphor for the Korean-American experience?
― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Sunday, 7 November 2021 01:10 (two years ago) link
feels to me like like L'Avventura is Antonioni's signature film. There weren't any major plot points, Anna just disappears. The whole thing was so open-ended. it still seems very fresh
― Dan S, Sunday, 7 November 2021 01:21 (two years ago) link
I tried to rewatch Tetsuo this week, but the version on Kanopy is cropped to widescreen
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Sunday, 7 November 2021 02:01 (two years ago) link
I think William Gibson's writing in The Peripheral is better and more mature than in Neuromancer, but I was able to finish Neuromancer, and I never got past a few chapters in The Peripheral. Meanwhile I'm easily digesting The Peripheral miniseries...
Speaking of Tetsuo and objectively excellent but subjectively tedious stop-motion body horror, Mad God was also hard to sit through.
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 31 October 2022 19:08 (one year ago) link
It took me 3 or 4 nights to watch Solaris last month. I kept falling asleep!
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Thursday, 3 November 2022 12:47 (one year ago) link
Not a film, but a book: W G Sebald's 'Rings of Saturn'. Good grief this bloody book has taken me months to read. It's fantastic. But man it's also very slow going for me.
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Thursday, 3 November 2022 13:04 (one year ago) link
The better portion of Scorsese's filmography.
― avatar of a kind of respectability homosexual culture (Eric H.),
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 3 November 2022 13:19 (one year ago) link
Another vote for Hard To Be A God, the uncontested winner of the thread
― zeuhl's forgotten man (Matt #2), Thursday, 3 November 2022 13:27 (one year ago) link
Speaking of books: anything I've read by William Golding, excluding 'Lord of the Flies', elicits a 'I can tell why this is really good' mixed with 'God I hate this'.
― Sam Weller, Thursday, 3 November 2022 13:33 (one year ago) link
ha, Tetsuo and Mad God might be the most sheer pleasure I've had watching movies this year.
― jmm, Thursday, 3 November 2022 13:43 (one year ago) link
I see your Martin Scorsese and raise you one Peter Greenaway.
― (We're Not) The Experimental Jet Set (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 November 2022 13:44 (one year ago) link
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)
― Eric H., Thursday, 3 November 2022 13:46 (one year ago) link
Saw that. Was what I referring to. Maybe I should have quoted for clarity. Perhaps I used up all my limited energy this morning trying not to misspell Scorsese.
― (We're Not) The Experimental Jet Set (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 November 2022 13:52 (one year ago) link
My ultimate "watch this, it's good for you" director is maybe... Eisenstein? Though I found Ivan 2 not so bad recently.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 3 November 2022 14:46 (one year ago) link
I don't like Cassavetes but I don't know that I'd even say he made "good movies".
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 3 November 2022 14:50 (one year ago) link
Can’t think of many… most films I dislike, I consider them to be “bad films”. Hal Hartley, most of Fassbinder, half of Greenaway, for example
The only applicable films I can think of are the ones that form a part of “film history” and one has to regard their innovative aspects— Texas Chainsaw Massacre fits the bill, here, I didn’t enjoy it but I appreciated it
― flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, 3 November 2022 14:58 (one year ago) link
I absolutely adore both Ivan the Terrible installments on a very "this is fun" level
― ex-McKinsey wonk who looks like a human version of a rat (Eric H.), Thursday, 3 November 2022 15:12 (one year ago) link
The camp elements were more apparent to me on this recent rewatch, inspired by an article by Andrew Britton: "Sexuality and Power, or the Two Others".
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 3 November 2022 16:37 (one year ago) link
I actually don't even really process it as camp, more alien
― ex-McKinsey wonk who looks like a human version of a rat (Eric H.), Thursday, 3 November 2022 17:06 (one year ago) link
Camp alien? Like Harvey Korman as The Great Gazoo?
― (We're Not) The Experimental Jet Set (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 November 2022 17:18 (one year ago) link
Like Bea Arthur tending the Cantina Bar
― ex-McKinsey wonk who looks like a human version of a rat (Eric H.), Thursday, 3 November 2022 18:35 (one year ago) link
I wouldn’t serve you with Bea Arthur’s check!
― (We're Not) The Experimental Jet Set (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 November 2022 18:37 (one year ago) link