Atheist Cinema

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Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 12, 2009 at 10:07pm

If anyone is interested, please see my post on the film Siberian Lady Macbeth in Lovers of Shakespeare.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on March 14, 2009 at 5:26pm

I've been to rottentomatoes in the past, but I was not impressed, and I got lots of ads. I'll check it out again I guess.

Comment by James M. Martin on March 14, 2009 at 5:05pm

You familiar with www.rottentomatoes.com ?

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on March 14, 2009 at 4:18pm

Can anyone recommend a really good film site, that is encyclopedic, comprehensive, accurate, and intelligent, especially when it comes to older films? The Internet Movie Database is woefully inadequate. I could google it, I know. But I would like to see if anyone can recommend one first.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on February 19, 2009 at 1:19pm

James, I think this is the first Brad Anderson movie I've seen. Ha, too true about Hitchcock, but that was so prevelant for that time period, it seems to me. I don't mind an open-ended movie, but the whole cause for his OCD/neurosis, while tragic, did not seem all that overwhelming thematically. But the sets and the style were impressive. Very minimalist and desolate.

Bale is not my favorite, and I did not like American Psycho at all. For some reason he gets on my nerves, and I don't think he is as hot as everyone says. However, I did like his performance here. He was also pretty good in Velvet Goldmine.

Haven't seen The Tenant in years, but I remember it left me scratching my head. Maybe I need to revisit that movie now.

Comment by James M. Martin on February 19, 2009 at 12:59pm

Hey, I hear you, guy. Want as I continually do to appreciate the work of Brad Anderson (last outing: Transsiberian Express), an alumnus of both The Wire and The Shield and greatly responsible for developing their style, palette, &c., I am usually left with the feeling something is missing. (Hitchcock was at times downright blatant about tying up all the ribbons, as, e.g. Simon Oakland explaining, in psychobablical terms, the cross dressing of Norman Bates long after we've worked out in our minds precisely what went on, in Psycho.) But with Anderson, as with a stylistically similar Darren Aronofsky, the style is the message. It may have been Christian Bale's willingness to lose 40 pounds and become thereby a Holocaust Victimish obsessive-compulsive, which now that I think about it is the theme of Polanski's Repulsion and The Tenant.

Which is as it should be: Wikipedia says not only Kafka but Dostoyevsky and even Nine Inch Nails influenced the writing of the film. The lead character's name is Trevor Reznik, after all. Duh! I don't know about you, but if Mr. Bale decided to make a movie of the phone book, I would go see it. Wonderful still you provided, BTW. Ribs all showing. Mammon's salivating like Pavlov's dog.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on February 19, 2009 at 12:14pm

Just watched The Machinist last night. It is a very strange and disturbing movie, and very well done. Macabre and strange without being over the top. Though I did not like really how it ended, or what was behind his strange behavior. That part was a bit of a disappointment. Has anyone else seen it? And what did you think?

Comment by James M. Martin on January 19, 2009 at 1:13pm

Thanks, Dallas. B. is only my second fave. The first is S. M. Eisenstein.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on January 19, 2009 at 8:00am

James, I guess I have not seen that one. I don't mind absurdism, but Bunuel just does not makes sense to me; I just don't get him, and his films seem to be incoherent (with the exception of Wuthering Heights). There is another guy on AN who thinks he is a God, but I can't remember his name or ID. If I run across his comments again, I'll be sure to send a link to his bio. You two might have some things in common.

Comment by James M. Martin on January 18, 2009 at 9:44pm

It's entirely possible you forgot it because Buñuel is often illogical and "Brechtian" in the way that he constructs his films: anything can and often does happen, the non sequitur being a particularly useful tool to a surrealist. You do remember the opening sequence where Laurent Terzieff and a friend are hitching a ride to Compostela and a fellow pilgrim picks them up. They get into the back seat and start bitching about this and that, blaspheming, using the "Lord's" name in vain, &c., and in the next shot, Buñuel shows the driver pulling over to the side and ordering them out. If he wanted to do what Jebus would do, he would be more tolerant of their "sins," but he can only get angry. The snippet with the "beard" joke is later on. Buñuel loves stories within stories, gratuitious intrusions of this and that, and sidebar comments on the action.

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