2014 MOVIE OMNIBUS THREAD

[odessasteps]

So I applied to teach a Cultural Studies course on Horror and Science Fiction films. While I'm pretty sure I won't get it (the application date + the starting date don't add up, which makes me think that the university already has an internal candidate in mind), it has made me think a lot about what films I would teach.

If you were a student signed up for a Cultural Studies course on Horror and SF films, what would you want to study?

Whats the topic?

Having had a class in each, suggestions msy vary.

But definitely metropolis and some german expression horror to start. And a trip to the moon

[Control]

So I applied to teach a Cultural Studies course on Horror and Science Fiction films. While I'm pretty sure I won't get it (the application date + the starting date don't add up, which makes me think that the university already has an internal candidate in mind), it has made me think a lot about what films I would teach.

If you were a student signed up for a Cultural Studies course on Horror and SF films, what would you want to study?

Whats the topic?

Having had a class in each, suggestions msy vary.

But definitely metropolis and some german expression horror to start. And a trip to the moon

No set topic, but I'd probably hit the "cultural studies" Big Three of race, gender/sexuality, and class/economics. It's a summer course, so we're talking 9-10 films tops.

METROPOLIS was definitely the starting point I had in mind.

[JRGoldman]

Oh! I don't know how I forgot, but we also watched Videodrome in the horror class. 

[Control]

VIDEODROME would certainly make the final cut. It's one of my favourite films, and it'd ensure some Canadian content.

[Reed]

The original Japanese Ring and The Blair Witch Project are absolutely musts in my mind. Two of the most influential horror films ever made and each inspired too many knock-offs to count.

[The Natural]

The original Japanese Ring and The Blair Witch Project are absolutely musts in my mind. Two of the most influential horror films ever made and each inspired too many knock-offs to count.

 

I'll second these. The ending to The Blair Witch Project is creepy and memorable.

[Reed]

What Ringu and The Blair Witch Project do so well is build up the atmosphere. Ostensibly, they don't have terribly much in common, besides maybe a "curiousity killed the cat" theme, but they're both so dread-filled and claustrophobic and filled with these long, unbearable silences. You know something bad is coming and these characters are trapped...and then when it does come, it's even more horrific than you thought.

[The Natural]

For one, Brian Fowler:

 

http://www.totalfilm.com/features/30-whedon-verse-wtf-moments

[Burgundy LaRue]

So I applied to teach a Cultural Studies course on Horror and Science Fiction films. While I'm pretty sure I won't get it (the application date + the starting date don't add up, which makes me think that the university already has an internal candidate in mind), it has made me think a lot about what films I would teach.

If you were a student signed up for a Cultural Studies course on Horror and SF films, what would you want to study?

 

Consider the Grand Dame Guginol sub-genre.  That will cover gender and age nicely.  What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, What's the Matter with Helen, and Die! Die! My Darling! would be suggestions.

 

The Innocents would be a great British horror film.

[Reed]

Speaking of horror films (well, sort of)  I just watched The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate, a documentary of the film. It's a good look at one of the biggest debacles in Hollywood history.  Just a staggering amount of ineptness involved. Best quote comes from one of the producers: "We honestly all thought we were making Gone with the Wind." I'd like to have sympathy for Cimino, but he's too arrogant and delusional. I can't say he doesn't have any talent, obviously he has some, but he's obviously too stupid/egotistical to properly utlize it. I guess you could say he's an obsessive like Kubrick, except Kubrick was good enough to justify his zany behaviour.

 

IMO, Heaven's Gate isn't really the worst film ever made or anything, but it is far too long and boring. The story behind it is more interesting than the movie.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

IMO, Heaven's Gate isn't really the worst film ever made or anything, but it is far too long and boring. The story behind it is more interesting than the movie.

 

The first (plodding and disjointed) three hours sets up the last forty minutes, which were phenomenal. I plan on watching the documentary sometime soon.

[Reed]

I think there's just a natural assumption that if something flops huge, it was awful. As if quality always determines profitability. John Carter is actually a pretty decent flick, but everyone just assumes it was terrible based on its performance at the box office.

 

I bet if Titantic had flopped majorly, people would have been "worst, most cheesy film ever made!" and been trashing Cameron forever. Even though the film is decent enough (it's not great, admittedly) and Cameron actually did a hell of a job on it.

[Antacular]

John Carter was laughably bad. So many things happened, all of them unnecessary.

[Reed]

Funny Games, either the original or remake, would be an interesting choice. I'm not a big fan of the way Hanake turns around and lectures people at times, but it's one of the few horror movies that flat out asks, hey, why do you like these films? Generally, that's how I feel about a lot of the torture porn stuff.

 

Cabin in the Woods too.

[Curt McGirt]

 

 

the "cultural studies" Big Three of race, gender/sexuality, and class/economics

 

You could probably nail all three of those with Night of the Living Dead or Candyman. Headshot. Lots more room to work with.

[Curt McGirt]

Then after that you can use the time to just watch Fulci and Argento movies. "Hey class, we're gonna check out The Gates of Hell tomorrow. Don't forget to wake and bake."

[caley]

I'd like to have sympathy for Cimino, but he's too arrogant and delusional. I can't say he doesn't have any talent, obviously he has some, but he's obviously too stupid/egotistical to properly utlize it. I guess you could say he's an obsessive like Kubrick, except Kubrick was good enough to justify his zany behaviour.

 

I read the autobiography of Michael Deeley not too long ago (Producer who worked on tons of fascinating movies: 'The Italian Job', 'The Wicker Man', 'The Man Who Fell to Earth', 'Convoy', 'Blade Runner' and 'The Deer Hunter') and boy is he not too fond of Cimino, despite Cimino bringing him his one and only Oscar (In fact the only person he speaks meaner about is a late-period Sam Peckinpah and he basically concedes that Peckinpah was a brilliant man who was crumbling under the weight of his own addictions).  Basically, Cimino hired another screenwriter without consulting the producers, ended up fighting with him but still having to pay him which cut the two original screenwriters down to "story by" credits which meant less money for them.  He then willfully hid and disobeyed the production company by taking a 20-30 minute sequence (the opening wedding) and making it over 66 minutes in length.  He also managed to turn a script rewrite and directing credit into about 4-5 different credits, including producing credits, even though he didn't really produce it (Deeley feels he used the extra credit to show other companies that he could produce a film which would give him full control over his pet project which would turn out to be 'Heaven's Gate') and made a film well over 3 hours when he had been contracted to make one in the 2-2.5 range.

 

In fact, he's so annoyed by Cimino to this day that he keeps his Oscar on a very high shelf so that he can see it, but the angle blocks Cimino's name so he doesn't have to see it.  But it lead to one great thing: he was so annoyed by the constant bickering and subterfuge of Cimino that he decided it was not going to be the film he retired on, so he pushed ahead and battled for years to produce another film: 'Blade Runner'.

 

Good book ('Blade Runners, Deer Hunters & Blowing the Bloody Doors Off'), well worth a read as Deeley's somewhat of a villain in some circles (Christopher Lee hates him because he's the one responsible for the shortened edit of 'Wicker Man') and beloved in others.

[Lawful Metal]

I watched the '88 remake of the Blob. How in the world do we not have a remake of this when they're remaking everything else?

This blob had predatory instinct, cunning, self-preservation instincts, not to mention the ability to form tentacles of various sizes.

It was a shoggoth by another name. Loved it.

[Antacular]

People actually walked out of WOWS around the 2:30ish mark in my theater. I know someone who knows Belfort personally, and he said things WERE a lot crazier than what was filmed.

[The Natural]

 

 

Hoping we'll get Dredd 2. Watched Dredd 3D at the cinema, it was one of the best 3D films I've seen. Really liked the film so bought it on DVD and signed the petition. Dredd over The Raid!

[Curt McGirt]

The Blob is being remade by Rob Zombie last I heard. Of course it won't have the awesome physical effects of the '88 one, I'm sure. This is yet another great relic that probably needs to be left alone.

[jaedmc]

I watched movies.

 

Frozen

First half was good. Second half it started to go off the rails a little, and got a little lazy with the writing. I dig the end result with the true love twist. People have the Let It Go song rocking but me.. I wake up my son in the morning with DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOOOOW MAN. 

 

Nymphomaniac

It's only Vol. 1, and unlike Kill Bill vol. 1, this doesn't have a solid arc to work as a stand alone. It feels like I've watched half of a movie, which technically is exactly what I did. Still I love it. I love Von Trier and this is one of his funniest movies, in that dark horrible way. The Stellan Skarsgard character really anchors the whole thing with his anecdotes and analogies to Joe's crazy story. 

 

F For Fake

I want to be Orson Welles. 

 

Cat People

Simon Simone is so cute so of course this guy has to marry her immediately and then cheat on her because she doesn't put out, because she's afraid she'll turn into a man eating cat. You knew what you were signing up for bro. It's pretty fun stuff with some wild lighting. If the psychiatrist had been played by George Sanders this shit would have been all time great.

 

Star Trek: Into Darkness

I think there's a really interesting plot in here. The only problem is everything else. J.J. Abrahm's direction and artistic flourishes are excessive to the point of distraction. i died laughing when they did three push-in shots on Ohura in the span of a minute of a half. DRAMA~!

 

Force Of Evil

John Garfield noir that you really should watch. It's one of Scorsese's faves, and if you're a fan of Wolf of Wallstreet you'll see aspects of it in this film. There's even a line that Dicaprio says about how it's a dumb for all that money to be wasted in regular people's pockets, that's take from this movie. Or maybe Belfort actually said, which would make it to good to pass up for Scorsese. The movie is about a lawyer who helps the mob run the numbers racket and is going to try and turn it into a legit lottery. His brother runs one of the "banks"(where people palce bets, which will get crushed during the merger process. 

 

Just fucking watch it.

 

Cabaret

Not a fan of musicals but this was pretty enjoyable. Liza has INSANE charisma. Just off the charts. Bob Fosse is a wild director, but he knows how to show off his fucking choreography, which makes me wonder why they couldn't shoot Chicago more like this and less like Moulin Rouge.

 

Oz the Great and Powerful

Rachel Weisz gets MVP honors. The three women felt like they were in a different movie, and I wish I was watching that movie instead of the one James Franco was in. 

 

Enemy

I'm writing an essay about this so I'll have more to share later, but I highly recommend it. It's pretty straightforward in my opinion, but it operates so smoothly with some wild subtexts. I never felt like the mystery was about why are there two guys or is it all in his head, because I felt that was pretty clear pretty quickly, nor was it really about the question of "Why?". Instead it's "What's this guy going to do about it?", which is more interesting. 

[S.K.o.S.]

 

Enemy

I'm writing an essay about this so I'll have more to share later, but I highly recommend it. It's pretty straightforward in my opinion, but it operates so smoothly with some wild subtexts. I never felt like the mystery was about why are there two guys or is it all in his head, because I felt that was pretty clear pretty quickly, nor was it really about the question of "Why?". Instead it's "What's this guy going to do about it?", which is more interesting. 

 

I do feel that I've got it all figured out now (and it certainly wasn't obvious to me at first - though it might have helped that you'd read the book and apparently gave it a good deal of thought), but I'll shut up and let you write your piece on it.  Looking forward to reading it.

[jaedmc]

Actually it feels quite different from the book, so for a bit I needed to get bearings. It has a different intention than book. PM me your thoughts on it if you don't want to spoil anything for folks.

[Reed]

 

I'd like to have sympathy for Cimino, but he's too arrogant and delusional. I can't say he doesn't have any talent, obviously he has some, but he's obviously too stupid/egotistical to properly utlize it. I guess you could say he's an obsessive like Kubrick, except Kubrick was good enough to justify his zany behaviour.

 

I read the autobiography of Michael Deeley not too long ago (Producer who worked on tons of fascinating movies: 'The Italian Job', 'The Wicker Man', 'The Man Who Fell to Earth', 'Convoy', 'Blade Runner' and 'The Deer Hunter') and boy is he not too fond of Cimino, despite Cimino bringing him his one and only Oscar (In fact the only person he speaks meaner about is a late-period Sam Peckinpah and he basically concedes that Peckinpah was a brilliant man who was crumbling under the weight of his own addictions).  Basically, Cimino hired another screenwriter without consulting the producers, ended up fighting with him but still having to pay him which cut the two original screenwriters down to "story by" credits which meant less money for them.  He then willfully hid and disobeyed the production company by taking a 20-30 minute sequence (the opening wedding) and making it over 66 minutes in length.  He also managed to turn a script rewrite and directing credit into about 4-5 different credits, including producing credits, even though he didn't really produce it (Deeley feels he used the extra credit to show other companies that he could produce a film which would give him full control over his pet project which would turn out to be 'Heaven's Gate') and made a film well over 3 hours when he had been contracted to make one in the 2-2.5 range.

 

In fact, he's so annoyed by Cimino to this day that he keeps his Oscar on a very high shelf so that he can see it, but the angle blocks Cimino's name so he doesn't have to see it.  But it lead to one great thing: he was so annoyed by the constant bickering and subterfuge of Cimino that he decided it was not going to be the film he retired on, so he pushed ahead and battled for years to produce another film: 'Blade Runner'.

 

Good book ('Blade Runners, Deer Hunters & Blowing the Bloody Doors Off'), well worth a read as Deeley's somewhat of a villain in some circles (Christopher Lee hates him because he's the one responsible for the shortened edit of 'Wicker Man') and beloved in others.

 

 

In the documentary, one of the producers told a story about how dead set Cimino was on casting French actress Isabelle Huppert in the lead role for Heaven's Gate. They weren't too keen because of her strong accent and the fact she'd never been in an English language film before. Cimino told the producers that Huppert would do a reading for them, and if they still disliked her, he'd replace her. So Huppert proceeds to do an absolutely disastrous reading and the producers want Cimino to live up to his promise and find someone else. He turns them down flat and insists she's staying in the movie and they were pissed that he blatantly lied.