Does anyone on OTF still go to the cinema?

[Sunderporinostesta]

American Fiction tonight. We both liked it though the ending was a bit too Get Shorty for my liking.
I’d love to see Jeffrey Wright playing joint lead type roles in something with Paul Giamatti.

[San Bernardhinault]

Watched Dune 2 today
...
I found some of dialogue impossible to hear due to the loud score.

I said after Dune Pt I that I found the dialogue getting swamped under the rest of the noise extremely frustrating. I have fairly shit hearing these days, so anything that muffles the content even more makes it hard for me to tell if I'm missing stuff or if its meant to be missed. It being 3 and a half decades since I read the book, I couldn't easily fill in the blanks which I think a lot of the more invested watchers did - they knew the Bene Gesserit and imperial strategy and spice trading stuff in some detail so it didn't matter to them if they missed a few words here and there. To me it just became a pretty canvas to look at but I ended up only half following what was happening and that didn't help me care about it.

Someone upthread said that Villeneuve doesn't care about dialogue (or maybe doesn't in Dune) which is an interesting take, but it didn't work well for me in the first one - to the extent that I'm now unlikely to watch Pt II

[Felicity, I guess so]

I'd like to see Copa 71 as long as it isn't bookended/dominated by 'Lionesses'...please let me know

[Felicity, I guess so]

McConaghey mumbling was one my minor gripes about Into Stella, before the really shit stuff had me shouting at the screen

[Exiled off Main Street]

[QUOTE=San Bernardhinault;n2885020]

I said after Dune Pt I that I found the dialogue getting swamped under the rest of the noise extremely frustrating/QUOTE]

Gonna see it at the big IMAX this Friday - taking earplugs. I have found (at this mega IMAX) that they help with separation of noise and speech....

[jameswba]

Wim Wenders Perfect Days last night, which I liked. Superb central performance by Kōji Yakusho as Tokyo toilet cleaner. He says very little, but the expression from his face, his eyes are wonderful.
Interesting to read that Wenders was invited initially to make short films about new public toilets in Tokyo but decided to make a feature instead. I've read about the back story he gave to Yakusho's character too which makes it interesting looking back at it.

I saw this last night and loved it. It's about the world - outer and inner - of a person most of us wouldn't notice, yet who plays his own small role in making life livable.

I missed the last bus home afterwards, but this was perhaps a good thing as the 40-minute walk home gave me a chance to process it better.

[superstu64]

Im going to see The Zone Of Interest tonight, first film I'll have seen at the Cinema for about 6 years! Only a fiver. And I love Glazer and this does sound amazing.

[jameswba]

24 hours on from seeing Perfect Days, and the film is resonating with me more and more, including in ways that may not be good for me....

Firstly though, I think the way most people would react to the film is symbolic of how life is mostly lived those days. So much in it is slow, deliberate and repetitive. The camera lingers as Yakushko's character folds his bedding, trims his moustache, responds to the morning air as he steps out of his front door, and we see him doing these things often. Even in an appreciative audience, like last night's, you can sense a touch of impatience, unspoken thoughts of, 'oh, get on with it'. But the detail and the pace are essential in showing us the essence of this quiet, unassuming person.

Another realisation I've had is more personally troubling. Right now, if anyone asked me which film character I'd most like to be, I'd nominate Yakusho's instantly. His simple job, his neatness, his ability to find beauty and contentment in the tiniest things, the way he goes through life almost unnoticed, the time he has to appreciate the music of Lou Reed and Patti Smith or the novels of Faulkner and Highsmith ; all these filled me with a mix of admiration and envy.

This isn't the first time I've wished I could kick my teaching job into touch. I've been doing it for nearly 27 years, I think I can claim to be at least semi-competent at it, and it's provided its share of satisfaction and even moments of genuine delight over the years. But when you're towards the introvert end of the introvert-extrovert spectrum, it often seems to need immense effort. The days when I'd just rather take the train to the end of the line than go and face 3A are not getting fewer. Days when lesson plans collapse around me still happen occasionally too, and of course, there's a bunch of kids there to witness it. Plus you go home in the evening and have to rack your brains as to how you can put on an improved show the next day. How much better would it be to do a job where you're still making a contribution to society while being essentially disregarded? And where, once you're finished for the day, you can put work out of your mind till next morning?

My sense from the movie is that Yakushko's character has chosen to live as he does and that he truly is content. It's not that his life is entirely without complications. He has an annoyingly immature (though amusing) co-worker. He seems to have feelings for a woman who runs a bar he visits. His niece unexpectedly visits him, and he gives her his sleeping-space and has to bed down in his poky little kitchen / washing area. The visit brings hints of family conflict. But he loves his niece at least as much as he loves his solitude. The scenes with her emphasise how, in his own small way, he enhances the lives of those who do notice and value him.

There's plenty more to like ; the supporting cast, the cityscapes (and lack of obvious Tokyo cliches), the music. It's just a lovely, lovely film. And if they start advertising for toilet-cleaners in Zilina, I can't guarantee I won't be putting in an application.

[Plato Shrimp]

I'd like to see Copa 71 as long as it isn't bookended/dominated by 'Lionesses'...please let me know

I saw this at the London Film Festival in October.
It's bookended mainly by the former US player Brandi Chastain,
maybe as a way to sell it in the US.

But if you ignore the bookends its a really good documentary, with a load of original footage of the tournament (not just the actual games),
and great interviews with the players looking back on it all.
Well worth a watch.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Nice, thanks

[Felicity, I guess so]

Double bill of Carol Morley last night: The Alcohol Years/The Falling.

The former is an early documentary where she put an ad in the local paper to get people who knew her to fill in the blanks/blur of 1982-7 in Manchester. It's brutally frank and quite grim at times (amongst the free drinks at the Hacienda/marrying Pete Shelley (!)/abusing New Order hospitality in London). I was interested in the piecing together of a life from fragments, reenacting things approach to docu that she later honed in the magnificent Dreams of a Life.

The latter her debut fiction feature starring Maisie Williams, a debuting Florence Pugh and Maxine Peake about a contagion of mass fainting in a 1969 girls' school. One or two bum notes but really interesting to rewatch, having seen it on release 10 years ago.

Depressingly the mainly first year students attending just labelled both 'weird'.

[jameswba]

A rare second film in a week last night as our cultural-centre showed Das Lehrerzimmer (The Teachers' Lounge).

Main character Carla Nowak is a new teacher in a small-town but fairly ethnically diverse school. A series of thefts have occurred, and a boy of Turkish origin in Carla's class comes under suspicion. Dissatisfied with the way the school runs its investigation, Carla takes measures of her own.

In most respects, it's a very fine film indeed, working as both a psychological thriller and an exploration of vital themes, most obviously racism, community and education itself. It portrays quite brilliantly how suspicion can corrode an institution. Also, - and here I'm stealing an insight from a brief talk we were given before it started - the portrayals of adult and child behaviour in stressful situations are superb. One scene depicting a conflict among the staff is especially memorable.

On the other hand, I couldn't find it within me to have much sympathy with Carla herself. Her idealism is fine. Indeed any teacher who doesn't retain a measure of this probably needs to get out of the profession. When it combines with an elevated sense of one's own abilities and disdain towards colleagues, however, it becomes dangerous. Carla reminded me a lot of a colleague I had some years ago who decided the school's way of dealing with an issue wasn't right and that she had a better one. Let's just say that didn't end very well.

That was my reaction, but there would be other equally valid ones. The guy giving the talk pre-showing said it should be seen by any student at film-school, as it demonstrates so much cinematic craft. Personally, I would also make it compulsory viewing for teachers and teacher-trainees everywhere.

Not sure how much the two(!) dogs in the audience got out of it, but there were interesting audible reactions from one or two of the humans at various points.

[Sunderporinostesta]

I’ll keep an eye out for that one.
Hehehe I’ve never seen dogs in an indoor cinema setting before.
Though there’s always a few at the summer outside cinema showings on the grass behind St Albans Abbey. Obviously they’re as pissed off as everyone else when the electricity supply gets cut off and the tills, fridges and beer pumps are off and it’s non fraught booze for the correct money only…….again.

[jameswba]

I'd be very interested in other reactions to it. One thing I'm sure of is that it's way better than the last school-based film I saw, Club Zero. That may also have been set in Germany, though it was an English-speaking film.

Tonight, they're showing the film with Finnish / Estonian women in saunas, which sounds wonderful, but I can't be there. The one dog will be there for sure.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Laurent Cantet's Entre les murs (The Class) was one I used to teach, supplemented with clips from Kes to show how hard we were in my day

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Saw Wicked Little Letters last night. Really liked it. Much better than the trailers suggested. Really engaging story, captures the claustrophobia and prejudice of British inter-war society. The swearing is indeed sometimes very funny, but usually because it's a catharsis for the viewer emotionally involved in the drama of injustice.

[Edit: I believe it's had some bad reviews. Also, from being told the gist of at least one of those, it sounds as if it was written by a point-missing fool.]

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

My trip to Copa 71 postponed a few weeks due to this sodding miserable British pissing-down weather. All travel options for Mrs G and me to today's matinee would have required at least a few hundred metres of walking each way, which I'm just not up for in this weather (forecast to continue raining all day). There are very few showings, so our next chance is at a different cinema on 28 March.

[Felicity, I guess so]

We wanted to see Copa 71 or Wicked Little Lies today but mothers' day had both sold out so I finally saw Barbie.
It was marketed at mothers with a free drink and chocolates but more than half empty, so they'd all seen it already.

Enjoyable, a few decent laughs but was a bit puzzled by the deprogramming of the brainwashed - for a film bandying 'patriarchy' about it seemed ludicrously simple*. I know, it's a film about dolls, but it clearly wanted to be a bit clever. The end dragged and didn't really work but overall better than I feared it might be. The songs weren't, though.


*does George C know?!

[Felicity, I guess so]

Saw Copa 71 at the weekend- really good footage, important document of FIFA attitudes and loved the outfits (no, not the 'hotpants', the tracksuits and tartan jackets). You'd have to say the England keeper should've been coming off her line a bit more, tho Brian.

[jameswba]

Around 30 people and two dogs turned up at the cultural-centre yesterday evening to see new Czech black comedy (or comedy/horror) Prisla v noci (She came at night).

Jirka and Aneta are an early 30-something couple living in an apartment in Prague. Both do niche jobs which are insecure and / or frustrating. He works from home as a translator from Latvian to Czech, she's an ergotherapist. They are not sure if their financial situation allows them to start a family, so their immediate priority is raising funds to renovate their home. They are quiet, decent and - in their undemonstrative way - in love.

One night, out of the blue, Jirka's mother appears, asking to stay the night. The night becomes a few days, the days become weeks. She had left Jirka's father to take up with a new lover in Malta, but now that relationship is over, and she claims to have nowhere to go. She is controlling, manipulative and judgemental, and Jirka and Aneta find their apartment, indeed their whole lives, being taken over.

Simona Pekova recently won Czechia's most prestigious acting award for her performance as the mother. Brilliant as she is, I thought the performances of the actors playing Jirka and Aneta were equally good, and their characters more subtly interesting. The film is indeed comic and horrifying in almost equal measure, but it's also insightful on the lives of young professionals, including those in stable relationships and with a place to call home. Even before the mother upends everything, Jirka and Aneta look tired and in need of time away from their concerns.

[Benjm]

I went to see North by Northwest at the local indie cinema just now. It was the seniors matinee but I didn't stay for the free coffee and biscuits in case they rumbled me as underage. The film looked as beautiful and clipped along as deftly as ever. Stepping out into tentative sunshine afterwards I felt quite exhilarated.

[Gangster Octopus]

I didn't stay for the free coffee and biscuits in case they rumbled me as underage.

I think that you're safe...

[Felicity, I guess so]

Saw Drive Away Dolls at Bristol Watershed last night. Entertaining, funny in parts but really too silly, without the mix of comedy and peril of Coen films of yore. The comments on a board outside confirmed my sense that lots of lesbians would cringe (or indeed, scribble furiously) at their 'positive' representation in it.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Moved on to Cardiff and saw Baltimore at Chapter tonight (walking back to the flat heard what sounded like a loud enough cheer to be Wales winning the shootout...until we saw the faces of the punters leaving the pubs).

The film is really pretty good. One or two clunks/anachronisms and Ms F couldn't get over the 'only got her story told because she was a toff' element but I was swept along.

[RobW]

Not been to the flicks in about 3 weeks, but seeing Late Night With The Devil tonight. Barely know anything about it, but did watch the trailer earlier.