Lila Avilés - La Camarista (The Chambermaid) - 2018
Stars Gabriela Cartol as a hotel maid in Mexico City. Beautiful and sad.
Takashi Makino - Tranquil - 2007
Takashi Makino - Inter View - 2010
Overwhelming visuals and slightly overpowering soundtrack.
Herschell Gordon Lewis - Blood Feast - 1963
Mr. Lewis even outdoes Ed Wood with his films. Craziness beyond crazy and beautiful on the eye.
Kathryn Bigelow - Near Dark - 1987
Similarities to The Lost Boys, but lacking for the most part the 80s datedness. Near Dark is extremely raw and frightening, with both Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen giving some mind-blowing performances. Hard to imagine more dreadful scenes than what Bill Paxton presents to the audience, one of the truly great actors of his generation. Other aspects that make it a great one are the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream, and cinematography by Adam Greenberg, who was responsible for The Terminator, Ghost, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Solid film.
Bi Gan - Long Day’s Journey Into Night - 2018
Really stunning film with some of the best photography I have seen in the last few years (shot by Yao Hung-i, Dong Jinsong, and David Chizallet). The last 59 minute shot was just spectacular and really must have been difficult to shoot with so many variables that chance could have shifted out of their favor. Dream like qualities, almost surreal at some level. This might sound ridiculous, but I really had a problem with the director interview when he mentions video game aesthetics.
John Schlesinger - The Falcon and the Snowman - 1985
One of the few Schlesinger films I didn't enjoy.
12.19.2019
Clint Eastwood - Richard Jewell - 2019
Saw this on my birthday. Tragic story told very well by Clint Eastwood and acted well by Paul Walter Hauser.
Nanfu Wang, Zhang Jia-Ling - One Child Nation - 2019
James Gray - Ad Astra - 2019
For some reason I didn't expect much from this film but it was really quite impressive. From the music by Max Richter, to the visuals to the performance by Brad Pitt. One of the better space films from the last decade.
Diao Yi’nan - Black Coal, Thin Ice - 2014
(rewatch)
Very much love this film.
Stan Brakhage - I Take These Truths - 1995
Stan Brakhage - The Cat of the Worm’s Green Realm - 1997
(rewatch)
Stan Brakhage - Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind - 1997
(rewatch)
Stan Brakhage - “…” Reel Five - 1998
(rewatch)
Stan Brakhage - Persian Series 1-3 - 1999
(rewatch)
Stan Brakhage - Chinese Series - 2003
(rewatch)
Rewatching all of the Brakhage films presented on the Criterion By Brakhage: An Anthology. Going through each set in reverse chronological order. The last set features some truly wonderful works from straight on hand-painted films to hand-painted films in which he collaborated with Sam Bush (who collaborated with me, on this, much as if I were a composer who handed him a painted score, so to speak, and a few instructions - a medieval manuscript, one might say - and he were the musician who played it) to hand-painted films mixed with photography in which he says he was inspired by Phil Solomon and Nathaniel Dorsky to pick up a camera again, and my god could Brakhage shoot water (I believe he meant Solomon when he said "Phil" in an interview on The Cat of the Worm's Green Realm). Also included is a film he purely shot, and his last film which is hand-scratched. Such perfect work.
Lorene Scafaria - Hustlers - 2019
Tony Kaye - American History X - 1998
(rewatch)
Not sure if this film has dated that well.
(rewatch)
I like to watch this every few years. Ray Liotta's performance is quite memorable.
James Mangold - Cop Land - 1997
(rewatch)
Great cop film, Stallone really gives a great performance here, as does Liotta. Could watch endlessly.
(rewatch)
Perfect film.
12.23.2019
Sofia Coppola - Lost in Translation - 2003
(rewatch)
12.25.2019
Terry Zwigoff - Bad Santa - 2003
(rewatch)
Leos Carax - Holy Motors - 2012
Lukas Feigelfeld - Hagazussa - 2017
Andrew Haigh - Weekend - 2011
Beautiful film from Haigh who also directed 45 Years and Lean on Pete.
12.27.2019
Lav Diaz - From What Is Before (Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon) - 2014
Directed, written, photographed and edited by Lav Diaz. Very much in the tradition of Béla Tarr but more grounded in the everyday. Will take some time to digest.
Lee Chang-dong - Poetry - 2010
Thom Andersen - Los Angeles Plays Itself - 2003
(rewatch)
One of the great documentaries which attracts one endlessly to take in the light.
Mike Hodges - Get Carter - 1971
(rewatch)
We see in this film Jack Carter (Michael Caine) reading Raymond Chandler, which gives some kind of clue into the plot that unfolds in this film. Wolfgang Suschitzky's constant abstractionist photography is unreal, in some ways pushes the viewer to move through the fog for a clear reading, or rather to just bask in the abstraction.
Tamara Kotevska, Ljubo Stefanov - Honeyland - 2019
Beautifully shot and edited, yet so very difficult film to watch.
Plato's Cave, being a film journal for the art of memory, gets to 100 at the end of 2019 and will start at 101 for 2020. Next posts are personal best of the decade and best of the year.
Beautifully shot and edited, yet so very difficult film to watch.
Plato's Cave, being a film journal for the art of memory, gets to 100 at the end of 2019 and will start at 101 for 2020. Next posts are personal best of the decade and best of the year.
