Films Recently Seen By "Benny Profane"

[Benny Profane]

Here is where I will catalog movies as I watch them. I will write about as much about them as I feel like writing.

[Benny Profane]

Naked (1993, Leigh) - One of the most powerfully bleak films I've ever seen. The nonstop stream of nihilistic dialogue, (mostly) nocturnal and/or claustrophobic imagery, and conspicuous absence of any "normal" people place the viewer in a sort of spiritual vacuum that makes it a lot easier to empathize with a bunch of characters who would be, in a different context, alien and repulsive. Because of this, the film packs a serious emotional wallop. It's a very unique effect, but one that I'm still reeling from an hour after seeing it.

On a side note, I read an interview with David Thewlis about making Naked. Leigh's approach to his actors is pretty amazing. Before seeing the film, I would have considered it to be overkill. But you sure as hell can't argue with results.

As for the cinematography and direction. Many shots beautiful to the point of being virtuosic. But the greatness here is how little of the camerawork you notice. On a personal note, the film made me forget about keeping track of mise-en-scene. This is quite an achievement. I tend to watch movies in an overly detached way.

[Will]

I still need to see this one. It's a film I've heard so much about over the years and is usually a popular one amognst poeple but I've never had a chance to se it. Anyways great review.

[wigwam]

But the greatness here is how little of the camerawork you notice. On a personal note, the film made me forget about keeping track of mise-en-scene.

oooh! it's been years and ive only gotten worse about being overly shot-conscious as i watch (as thats all i watch for sometimes?) but i loved naked when i saw it and yeah i cant remember anything about the camera, it all seemed so natural and immediate like it wasnt even a movie, a great one

[Benny Profane]

Two Comedies:

Bringing Up Baby (1938, Hawks)- I heard that this film is supposedly based off of the romance between Hepburn and John Ford. Maybe this is why Grant's appearance and mannerisms, what with the round glasses, cleft chin, and very visible displeasure, reminded me so much of those of the famously grumpy Mainer. Of course, I don't know enough about Ford and his personal life to make any meaningful connections, but it made the movie somewhat more engaging for me. The scenes where the progressively annoyed Grant is unable to get his words in between the flurry of madcap dialogue are particularly funny. Hepburn's character, with all her humorous eccentricities, is also very interesting in the way she 'unintentionally'(?) manipulates the hapless Grant. In particularly in the scene where, after feigning being attacked, she purrs almost like some jungle cat herself. The whole sexual politics of the film are also still fresh (although maybe I'm just accustomed to the current Hollywood romantic arc) to and gave the fast-paced, dialogue driven, humor of the film an edge that it wouldn't otherwise have.

Bruno (2009, Charles)- An uneven film that has its moments. Many scenes are disappointingly pointless for the "cutting edge" satire that Oxford-grad Cohen promises. What, for instance, is the point in showing us that religious, middle-class, black women don't like it when you adopt a child from Africa and feature it in a series of pictures meant to offend them. However, during the second half of the film, Cohen reverts to what he does best: enticing people into displaying their ignorance. Interviews with a series of gay-converters to this in a way that is both pretty damn funny and undermines the myth of America-as-the-high-point-of-civilization. The climax, which might be described as Borat's "throw the jew down the well" sequence taken to the next level, is reason enough to see the movie. A shot of the anguished face of a certain sort of American male as his beliefs are attacked by someone he thought embodied them is supremely enjoyable.

[Benny Profane]

Terminator (1984, Cameron)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, Cameron)
Thirst (2009, Park)
District 9 (2009, Blomkamp)

[drone]

Terminator (1984, Cameron)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, Cameron)
Thirst (2009, Park)
District 9 (2009, Blomkamp)

Scores?

Also, your icon is a work of art

Such a fantastic album..

[Benny Profane]

I'm yet to come up with a coherent scoring system. However, while none of the movies listed are great, there were aspects of each of them that I liked. I didn't really have enough to say about them to write a real review, though.

On Dangerous Ground (1952, Ray)- This is my second exposure to Nick Ray, after The Lusty Men, which seems to have developed something of a following on these pages. However, Ray's style seems more apparent here than it did in the latter. Ray seems to share the intent of the expressionists: to engineer each shot to express the characters emotional state. But while the ends might be similar, the means are radically different- Ray's style is much more primal, to the point to where continuity and narrative flow are sacrificed for emotional urgency. Its very effective, and Robert Ryan's alienation are as clear as that of a character in a Tsai Ming-Liang film. My only issue is the ending, which seems to be almost tacked on and is far less convincing than anything in the rest of the movie.

On a side note, I find it interesting that Godard is said to have been influenced by Ray. While I can see how Godard, whose intent seems to be to explore and challenge the medium, might admire and be fascinated by what Ray does- use film for pure emotion, I don't see Godard ever actually doing similar things in his own movies. Don't get me wrong though, I like Godard a great deal.

[roujin]

I can't remember the exact ending of On Dangerous Ground, but I remember that by the film's end, for me, it had turned into a beautiful love story.

[Benny Profane]

Inglourious Basterds (2009, Tarantino) - I'm to lazy to write a real review so here's a re-hash of what I wrote on the thread for the movie:
Inglourious Basterds is preposterous enough to prevent it from being enjoyed on any serious level (the ending alone is reason for it). But the weight of the subject matter and the troubling conclusions that are too easily reached (Tarantino's glee in filming scenes that make Nazis victims, the whole idea of WWII revisionism) make the film too inherently serious to be enjoyed as escapism. That is to say that, even in treating the movie as pure entertainment, the reality dwarfs the fantasy. This renders the film strangely hollow.

New Yorker film critic David Denby puts it pretty damn well: "It’s disconnected from feeling, and an eerie blankness—it’s too shallow to be called nihilism—undermines even the best scenes."

The sad thing is that Tarantino's inability to deal with anything serious undermines the flashes of greatness. Waltz and Fassbender are really fantastic and as a director, Tarantino has a stylistic assurance far beyond most directors working in Hollywood today. Not to mention the score cues from those great Sollima films. However, due to his masturbatory tendency to revert to postmodern winking and revenge fantasy undermines this and, regrettably, the movie amounts to a whole lot of nothing.

Also, what is up with Tarantino's obsession with revenge? Is it the only theme he feels confortable working with. Were his wife and child brutally murdered? In cold blood? Does he stay awake at night dreaming of bringing hard justice to those who took everything away from him? Will he ever grow the fuck up?

[stack]

...and the cinema is nicholas ray.

lusty men is my fav, followed by on dangerous ground.

[Ally]

Will he ever grow the fuck up?

[sidehacker]

On Dangerous Ground is wonderful. Ida Lupino is pretty much perfect.

[Mikadzuki]

Also, what is up with Tarantino's obsession with revenge? Is it the only theme he feels confortable working with. Were his wife and child brutally murdered? In cold blood? Does he stay awake at night dreaming of bringing hard justice to those who took everything away from him? Will he ever grow the fuck up?

It sort of makes sense when you consider the following statement:

"If I had a gun and a 12-year-old kid broke into this house," [Tarantino] told the critic J. Hoberman in a 1996 interview, "I would kill him. You have no right to come into my house…I would empty the gun until you were dead."

[Benny Profane]

Also, what is up with Tarantino's obsession with revenge? Is it the only theme he feels confortable working with. Were his wife and child brutally murdered? In cold blood? Does he stay awake at night dreaming of bringing hard justice to those who took everything away from him? Will he ever grow the fuck up?

It sort of makes sense when you consider the following statement:

"If I had a gun and a 12-year-old kid broke into this house," [Tarantino] told the critic J. Hoberman in a 1996 interview, "I would kill him. You have no right to come into my house…I would empty the gun until you were dead."

Yeah I read about that in Newsweek. Personally, I don't think Tarantino cares that much about his property. I just think he'd love an opportunity to be a BADASS and kill someone. This is just speculation though.

[warthog]

let him do it, I'd love to see what the media would do with such a beautiful story.

[Ally]

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4745

[(DG)]

Also, what is up with Tarantino's obsession with revenge? Is it the only theme he feels confortable working with. Were his wife and child brutally murdered? In cold blood? Does he stay awake at night dreaming of bringing hard justice to those who took everything away from him? Will he ever grow the fuck up?

It sort of makes sense when you consider the following statement:

"If I had a gun and a 12-year-old kid broke into this house," [Tarantino] told the critic J. Hoberman in a 1996 interview, "I would kill him. You have no right to come into my house…I would empty the gun until you were dead."

Wow, that is fucked up.

[Ally]

Tarantino talks a bunch of garbage.

[Benny Profane]

I have started college, so many of the films I've been watching are in my film history class. Among them:

The Cheat (1915, DeMille)- A silly, misogynistic and racist melodrama notable for its early use of expressive lighting. I did not enjoy it very much.
Stella Maris (1918, Neilan)- Thoroughly ridiculous Mary Pickford vehicle. Pickford plays two roles: the sheltered title character and a scrappy ragamuffin named Unity Blake. One scene, in which Pickford as Blake looks into a mirror and wishes she was more like, well, Mary Pickford has strange and complicated implications as to how the audience's relationship with the star. This is pretty interesting, but it doesn't exactly make for compelling cinema.
The Three Faced Glass (1926, Jean Epstein)- Pretty good, but didn't reach my expectations.
Battleship Potemkin (1925, Eisenstein) - Rewatch
The Last Laugh (1924, Murnau) - Maybe my new favorite Murnau. I still need to see Sunrise though.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Dreyer) - No matter what happens in the future of this class, the chance to see this movie on the big screen makes it more than worth taking. A total masterpiece.

[(DG)]

Yeah, Passion of Joan of Arc at the Cinematheque was mindblowing...