halfwayintelligent
Joined May 2006
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halfwayintelligent's rating
I would like to put this in the top tier of Bob stuff with McCabe and Gosford Park, but I feel that it has lost some of the nuance that the viewers of three decades ago must have enjoyed. Elliot Gould seems almost blasé in his portrayal of the prototypical noir detective, Philip Marlowe, and his cool, detached demeanor makes the film tend toward the soporific. Sterling Hayden felt a little too Hemmingway-esquire (maybe it was the beard) as the alcoholic writer. Nina van Pallendt delivers a rather by the numbers performance as the red herring/romantic interest who momentarily diverts Marlowe's deductions.
The film has a washed out, golden look, owing to a technique of 'flashing' or overexposing the film. Altman's idea was that Marlowe has been asleep for twenty years and he wakes to find himself in the sun baked, marijuana baking L.A. of 1973, but having the same values he had in 1953. This conceit does not get voiced literally, but every scene has some little feature that crows out the modernity of Marlowe's surroundings while making him seem terribly anachronistic by comparison. In fact, the temporal displacement gag feels a bit heavy handed after a while.
If Altman had made another Marlowe movie every 10 years or so, the premise might have seemed to have achieved fruition. But 'The Long Goodbye' on its own, while still very watchable, does little that one doesn't see in scads of antecedent noirs.
Swartzenegger looks awesome in this (it was during his pumping iron days) and thankfully says nothing.
The film has a washed out, golden look, owing to a technique of 'flashing' or overexposing the film. Altman's idea was that Marlowe has been asleep for twenty years and he wakes to find himself in the sun baked, marijuana baking L.A. of 1973, but having the same values he had in 1953. This conceit does not get voiced literally, but every scene has some little feature that crows out the modernity of Marlowe's surroundings while making him seem terribly anachronistic by comparison. In fact, the temporal displacement gag feels a bit heavy handed after a while.
If Altman had made another Marlowe movie every 10 years or so, the premise might have seemed to have achieved fruition. But 'The Long Goodbye' on its own, while still very watchable, does little that one doesn't see in scads of antecedent noirs.
Swartzenegger looks awesome in this (it was during his pumping iron days) and thankfully says nothing.
Let me just state before anything else: 10/10. And not just a begrudging, 'I can't find anything wrong with it soo...' kind of ten, but a very solid and well earned and freely given 10/10.
OK, now that we've gotten that out of the way. Wow! This movie reminds me of the phenomenon James Joyce describes in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as 'aesthetic arrest'. Basically, he divides all media into high art and pornography. He states that anything purporting itself as art that resorts to playing on the emotional responses of the consumer is actually just pornography. So if you find yourself overly moved on an emotional level, you have actually experienced low, pornographic art. If, however, the film (or other work) causes 'aesthetic arrest'; a feeling that transcends emotion and makes the consumer nail him or herself to the spot and experience the work over and over; makes one question his or her own responses and definitions of truth, beauty and the like; the consumer is in aesthetic arrest and the work represents high art. In short, low art affects the glands whilst high art affects the soul. 'Grave of the Fireflies' certainly seems to fit well in that latter category.
I found this movie so amazing because it always had me on the verge of tears but never made cry. At 88 minutes, every image and every sound carries significance with nothing in just for the sake of bathos and sentimentality. Rarely does one find a cartoon where inanimate objects hold such deep symbolic meanings on their own, with no attempts made to underscore or personify them with wacky celebrity voices.
Making this film as anime was the obvious way to go. If it had featured live-action, I think the sadness of the story would have overpowered the beauty of the message. I don't think I would have been able to watch real actors go through the events experienced by the animated characters. These animated performances somehow seem to transcend acting. They seem more indelible, more real to me. I am tempted to buy this movie, but then, I don't see why I should since one viewing seems to have grafted these images onto my very soul.
Indescribably haunting, human and surreal. Best cartoon I've ever seen and up there with Citizen Kane, Naked and the other Great Ones
OK, now that we've gotten that out of the way. Wow! This movie reminds me of the phenomenon James Joyce describes in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as 'aesthetic arrest'. Basically, he divides all media into high art and pornography. He states that anything purporting itself as art that resorts to playing on the emotional responses of the consumer is actually just pornography. So if you find yourself overly moved on an emotional level, you have actually experienced low, pornographic art. If, however, the film (or other work) causes 'aesthetic arrest'; a feeling that transcends emotion and makes the consumer nail him or herself to the spot and experience the work over and over; makes one question his or her own responses and definitions of truth, beauty and the like; the consumer is in aesthetic arrest and the work represents high art. In short, low art affects the glands whilst high art affects the soul. 'Grave of the Fireflies' certainly seems to fit well in that latter category.
I found this movie so amazing because it always had me on the verge of tears but never made cry. At 88 minutes, every image and every sound carries significance with nothing in just for the sake of bathos and sentimentality. Rarely does one find a cartoon where inanimate objects hold such deep symbolic meanings on their own, with no attempts made to underscore or personify them with wacky celebrity voices.
Making this film as anime was the obvious way to go. If it had featured live-action, I think the sadness of the story would have overpowered the beauty of the message. I don't think I would have been able to watch real actors go through the events experienced by the animated characters. These animated performances somehow seem to transcend acting. They seem more indelible, more real to me. I am tempted to buy this movie, but then, I don't see why I should since one viewing seems to have grafted these images onto my very soul.
Indescribably haunting, human and surreal. Best cartoon I've ever seen and up there with Citizen Kane, Naked and the other Great Ones
Wow. This movie really rips the horror genre to shreds. Lynch masterfully splices and dices the narrative and never lets the viewer take a breath. It contains all the cliché elements of a cheap slasher movie; the nubile young women, the rusty weapon, torture, voyeurism, veiled threats, the creepy guys lurking around corners, the close up of the woman shrieking and even the dolly zoom (how the hell did he pull that off with a video camera?), but it shuffles these elements and their respective realities to such an extent that you find yourself inexplicably laughing at the whole deluded and hackneyed concept of a horror film. This isn't horror- this is America- which is even scarier.
Dern is magnificent and it's a shame she doesn't work more often.
Unbelievable that Lynch shot this on a $1000 video camera. I wonder if the numerous shots of 35mm Panaflex cameras (used in the shooting of the movie within the movie) represent gentle swipes at the industry, as if to say, "If I can make it look this good on video, what the hell do I need you schmuck producers for?"
The atmospheric lighting effects and the sound seem grittier, more real than much of Lynch's other work. Also, while the film shares some plot points with 'Mulholland Drive', it ends up feeling more optimistic and freer, maybe just owing to Lynch's working sans the scrutiny of a studio.
I'm reminded of Godard and Picasso. I think a revolution is intended here. If Lynch can do it, why not us?
Dern is magnificent and it's a shame she doesn't work more often.
Unbelievable that Lynch shot this on a $1000 video camera. I wonder if the numerous shots of 35mm Panaflex cameras (used in the shooting of the movie within the movie) represent gentle swipes at the industry, as if to say, "If I can make it look this good on video, what the hell do I need you schmuck producers for?"
The atmospheric lighting effects and the sound seem grittier, more real than much of Lynch's other work. Also, while the film shares some plot points with 'Mulholland Drive', it ends up feeling more optimistic and freer, maybe just owing to Lynch's working sans the scrutiny of a studio.
I'm reminded of Godard and Picasso. I think a revolution is intended here. If Lynch can do it, why not us?