Random Movie Talk, Louis the XIVth Edition

[LMP]

For what it's worth, the parts of The Interview that I got the see last weekend were pretty damn funny.

I was serving during a screening of it at Butt-Numb-a-Thon, crazy to think that it's one of the rare theatrical screenings of this.

 

[Lancemc]

Fucking sad.

 

[djerdap]

This comic book thing has to implode at some point. I just can't see it constantly making tons of money. The market saturation will do its bit at one point.

I hope.

 

[Hewson]

"Female superhero Spider-Man spinoff" is a catchy title.

 

[LemonMelon]

Updated Aranofsky rankings:

1. Black Swan (from score to storyline to performances, a masterpiece)
2. The Wrestler (best lead performance he's had)
3. Requiem for a Dream (this used to be at the top, but it feels more exploitative and unwatchable every time I reflect back on it)
4. Pi (solid Lynch homage)
5. Noah (I can't believe how stupid this is, but I enjoyed it in a way. It felt like a lost LotR sequel)
6. The Fountain (by far and away my least favorite, but the score is astounding)

 

[bono_212]

I'll join you:

1. Black Swan
2. Requiem For a Dream
3. Noah
4. The Wrestler
5. The Fountain
------
6. Pi - This is the only film of his I don't like, the rest are all favorites.

 

[djerdap]

4. Pi (solid Lynch homage)

Eh?

 

[LemonMelon]

Feels just like Eraserhead and his early shorts to me. Just Google "Aranofsky Pi David Lynch" and comparisons are everywhere.

 

[djerdap]

I'm aware of the Eraserhead comparison, and I know this was what you were implying, but I see far more differences than similarities.

Way too many films are reduced to words like "homage", which in most cases is a fairly lazy assessment.

And ironically, this is an Aronofsky quote that came first when I googled Pi and Eraserhead:

Q: I read that Pi was Eraserhead influenced but I didn't see that in your film.

DA: I think it's a shallow connection: both films are black and white and about one character. Lynch's film is very impressionistic and expressionistic, but Pi is really about a story. We were trying to make a thriller the whole time.

 

[LemonMelon]

Well, by dictionary definition, an homage is simply a show of respect and Pi, like many debut features, displays its influences very clearly. Obviously I didn't mean to suggest it's a remake or anything.

And hell, it's Aranofsky's film, I'm not about to argue with him, but it's a bit silly to suggest that Pi is a straight plot-driven thriller with no "impressionistic and expressionistic" elements. Intention and execution can be worlds apart.

 

[djerdap]

It's "Aronofsky".

And he's being slightly simplistic in that quote, sure. I guess you could find similarities in mood and atmosphere in both films, but the camera work and editing in Pi is completely different (you won't see the frantic jump cuts in Eraserhead, which was Aronofsky's trademark at that point), it is much more story-driven, it relies far more on dialogue and exposition (not to mention the narration), Eraserhead is cinematography-wise "cleaner", while Pi is more gritty... I really don't see much Eraserhead in it, and there are many dark, psychological black-and-white movies out there.

 

[LemonMelon]

The least I could do is spell something right if I'm discussing it.

I'll have to watch the two again with this discussion in mind. Eraserhead being one of my favorite films, I sensed the spirit of that film in Pi from the beginning but couldn't substantiate that impression far beyond that.

 

[Lancemc]

I find him to he an almost completely tone deaf andbtalently filmmaker but the crazier parts of Black Swanand Noah appeal to me.

 

[lazarus]

Am I the only one who liked The Fountain?

 

[bono_212]

Am I the only one who liked The Fountain?

I love The Fountain.

It's a mess, but I love it.

Pi, if you'd prefer, djerdap, is less a Lynch homage, then, than a complete Lynch rip-off. Was very glad to see him emerge, stylistically, with his own thing (though clearly influenced by other filmmakers still) immediately afterwards.

 

[LMP]

It's Aranofsky's Dune

 

[lazarus]

I still haven't seen The Fighter. Seemed like more of an actor's film and that rarely attracts my interest.

 

[LMP]

The Wrestler works well as a companion piece to Black Swan, abuses of the body and all that jazz. It is an actor's vehicle, but shows a huge leap from the after school special shenanigans of Requiem.

 

[bono_212]

Requiem really does lay it on thick, doesn't it? I like the movie, a lot, but I can't actually stand watching it, because it's just too much.

 

[lazarus]

I think it's reductive to call Requiem an after-school special just because it shows the horrors of drug abuse, as that implies some saccharine, artless, and didactic production. Aronofsky's film is very well-shot and actually gives us some interesting, varied characters before portraying their equally varied slow descents.

I'll agree that it lays it on thick but that's in terms of how nightmarish and bleak it becomes, but I don't think that's the same thing as being preachy.

 

[bono_212]

I love the movie. It's so perfect at what it's doing, though, that I can't watch it. I have incredibly complex feelings about that, and I don't think there's a single other film like it.

 

[deep]

Am I the only one who liked The Fountain?

it's at the top of my list, it's the only one I wanted to watch more than once
( i have not see Requiem, yet.)

and then the rest are all good or very good

 

[LemonMelon]

Requiem is an artfully crafted after school special. Like, the greatest after school special ever. It has a very unique, instantly memorable style and the score is gorgeous and hypnotic.

Really an A+ film on many levels. Its message is just so obvious, you know? Connelly ends up doing ASS TO ASS and everything.

 

[lazarus]

1. Black Swan
Ass 2. Ass
3.14159
4. The Fountain

 

[bono_212]

Have you not seen Noah, then?

 

[deep]

a lot of fun things in Noah, Patti Smith
and a very good updating of the story, finally a plausible explanation of how the ark got built and why the animals did not attack one another during the cruise, the book's publishers should update their book.

 

[lazarus]

Have you not seen Noah, then?

Nope.

Don't plan on seeing that or Exodus.

 

[deep]

not kosher

 

[bono_212]

I'll see them both.

In the year of exploiting Christians for ticket first sales, at least one movie tried to do something artistic, and the other is a Ridley Scott action flick, which I can't get enough of.

 

[LMP]

Left Behind does the same thing, you know like a Sunday School Special.