• Most new users don't bother reading our rules. Here's the one that is ignored almost immediately upon signup: DO NOT ASK FOR FANEDIT LINKS PUBLICLY. First, read the FAQ. Seriously. What you want is there. You can also send a message to the editor. If that doesn't work THEN post in the Trade & Request forum. Anywhere else and it will be deleted and an infraction will be issued.
  • If this is your first time here please read our FAQ and Rules pages. They have some useful information that will get us all off on the right foot, especially our Own the Source rule. If you do not understand any of these rules send a private message to one of our staff for further details.
  • Please read our Rules & Guidelines

TM2YC's 1001 Movies (Chronological up to page 25/post 481)

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52610953402_3b356e6697_o.jpg


Drowning by Numbers (1988)
Director: Peter Greenaway
Country: United Kingdom
Length: 118 minutes
Type: Comedy, Drama

I don't think a viewer today could watch Peter Greenaway's 'Drowning by Numbers' and not think "Hey, isn't this a Wes Anderson film?!" a decade early. There is less clean artifice, less precise visual symmetry and much more chaos and but the inexplicably eccentric characters, sideways voice-over, attention to on-screen typography, bizarre game playing activities and an insular community operating by it's own rules, are all there. Even if you weren't interested in the darkly comic and surreal murderous exploits of the characters, Greenaway's choice to place the numbers 1 to 100 throughout the film (mostly in order) will keep you engaged with the screen, in an obsessive type of way. Michael Nyman's score is glorious as always.


 
Last edited:

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52613291884_52e2f20843_o.jpg


Come and See (1985)
Director: Elem Klimov
Country: Belarus (Soviet Union)
Length: 142 minutes
Type: War, Drama

'Come and See' is slow to get going, so it didn't exhibit the power it's often reputed to have, until the second half. However, when it does get there, it's a startling and shocking experience. It's testament to Director Elem Klimov's creative ingenuity and skill as a visual artist, that he's able to craft a film that looks like an expensive art-house epic, on what is only occasionally revealed to be a shoe-string Soviet budget. It's the shots where the actors stare out of the screen at you which stick most in the mind. Nazi atrocities in Poland and other places are well documented on film (in dramas and documentaries) but I confess I didn't know much about the real-life genocidal massacres in Belorussia, on which 'Come and See' is closely based.




52613518813_bc87a70ecf_o.jpg


Fat Girl
aka For My Sister! aka A ma Soeur! aka Story of a Whale (2001)
Director: Catherine Breillat
Country: France
Length: 86 minutes
Type: Drama

Mostly a well acted drama about two French teenage sisters dealing with their coming-of-age on a family holiday. It captures that thing between similarly aged brothers/sisters where you can violently argue with them one minute, then be deeply caring for them the next. The sexuality is unusually unflinching and uncomfortable. I'm not sure about the shock ending, as although it did have some small thematic resonance with what precedes it, it still narratively comes out of nowhere.


^ This is about the only non-NSFW clip I could find.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52615391439_d3a7511489_o.jpg


Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
Director: Hector Babenco
Country: Brazil / United States
Length: 121 minutes
Type: Drama

From the title, I'm not sure exactly what I thought this would be, a Neo Noir perhaps? I wasn't expecting a one-set, two hander, character study and political prison drama about an evolving relationship, in extremis, between William Hurt's Molina, an apolitical effeminate gay man and Raul Julia's Valentin, a grim left-wing Brazilian political prisoner who is being regularly tortured. They talk about their lives before prison and generally wind each other up but the title comes from a half-remembered "romantic" movie which Molina recounts the plot of to Valentin. The much more politically astute Valentin immediately recognises it, to his amusement, as an old Nazi propaganda melodrama. The really fascinating element is that we the audience know all along that Molina has agreed to betray and even poison Valentin in exchange for leniency, the question is then if Valentin will find out, or if Molina can go through with it. It's a beautiful and painful exploration of the brutality and kindness that humans can exhibit towards one another, by two amazing actors and an exultation of the power of defiance and romantic fantasy. This needs a Criterion remaster.




52615130146_14bc7dc33c_o.jpg


Children of a Lesser God (1986)
Director: Randa Haines
Country: United States
Length: 114 minutes
Type: Romance, Drama

This seems to have "Oscar bait" written all over it but it's harder hitting and more interesting than it first appears. 'Children of a Lesser God' would be significantly improved if it had gone the subtitle route, like in the more recent 'CODA', rather than have William Hurt verbally translate every line of sign language because often the performances are so good, that the meaning was clear anyway. It shares a lot of DNA with 'CODA', as this also stars Marlee Matlin (in an Oscar winning role), also features elements of the "inspirational teacher" sub-genre and focuses on deaf/hearing communication in a similar New England fishing community.



It's much better with subtitles in 'CODA':

 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52634948307_7f577de242_o.jpg


Moonstruck (1987)
Director: Norman Jewison
Country: United States
Length: 102 minutes
Type: Romcom, Drama

I was barely aware of what this film was, which is a shame because I've been missing out on a truly wonderful Italian-American romcom. The film opens and closes with the famous Dean Martin song, featuring the lyric "When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie... that's amore" from which 'Moonstruck' takes it's title, theme and tone. Everything feels taken to heightened levels of romance, boiling emotion and hilarious comedy but it never feels like these characters aren't real people. The final scene for example, should be absurd farce but plays like one of the realest, most down to earth, most honest portraits of an imperfect but loving family I've seen in a Hollywood movie. One of my new favourite films.




52635941738_f683a37610_o.jpg


Stand by Me (1986)
Director: Rob Reiner
Country: United States
Length: 89 minutes
Type: Drama

If it wasn't for Director Rob Reiner making obvious technical errors by shooting the vomit scene and train/bridge scene from the wrong angles, I'd call this a flawless movie. There is an element of it being a nostalgia piece from and for 1980s adults about them being kids in the '50s, with greasers and the wonderful jukebox soundtrack but it totally transcends those period references. The performances by the child actors are better than most adult actors. The cast, the time when it was made and the whole vibe feel very "Spielberg adjacent".

 

mnkykungfu

Well-known member
Donor
Messages
2,279
Reaction score
747
Trophy Points
123
Hmm...what would be the right angles? It's been awhile, but I like how he played those, particularly the pie scene.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
Hmm...what would be the right angles? It's been awhile, but I like how he played those, particularly the pie scene.

It was a joking nitpick but the only reason why the classic vomit practical FX trick works is because you position the camera exactly right, so it looks like the liquid is coming out of the person's mouth, instead of a tube somewhere on the far side of the actor. I don't think Reiner got it right in a single shot. It's coming out of their chins, their noses and sometimes their closed mouths. But Reiner films it with such a consistent level of total incompetence, that I did wonder if it was a deliberate choice to make it more artificial, so as to make the scene less gross, but more silly and childlike (given the narrator) but then again he does also have the actors actually regurgitating liquids in other shots, so I doubt it. Still a very funny scene though.

For me it was a bit like watching a world champion athlete clear 10 hurdles flawlessly, then trip over their own shoelaces.
 

mnkykungfu

Well-known member
Donor
Messages
2,279
Reaction score
747
Trophy Points
123
^Hmm...I'll have to rewatch that now that I have more filmmaking knowledge. I remember always thinking that the various reactions were hysterical and disgusting all at once, like trying not to vomit through your teeth.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52645398379_113c93f0dd_o.jpg


Chungking Express (1994)
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Country: Hong Kong
Length: 98 minutes
Type: Drama, Comedy, Romance

I'm not a big fan of anthology movies, so I was a bit disappointed to discover that the much celebrated 'Chungking Express' was two films but the two stories are strongly linked thematically and share locations and plot details, so it worked as well as this format can work. The couple of cute and whimsical but melancholy and thoughtful narratives concern Hong Kong cops brooding on a breakup, while encountering mysterious new women. I assume Brigitte Lin's striking look was a reference to Barbara Stanwyck's femme-fatale in 'Double Indemnity', so couldn't help but view the first story as an offbeat Noir. I marginally preferred the second story, mostly because of Tony Leung being amazing as usual. The performance by Piggy Chan Kam-Chuen as the owner of the titular fast-food bar is very entertaining.


Love the music in the film:

 
Last edited:

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52656905463_38f1a7a58d_o.jpg


Red Sorghum (1987)
Director: Zhang Yimou
Country: China
Length: 95 minutes
Type: Drama, Historical

I didn't know what to make of Zhang Yimou's first film, I was unsure of who the characters were supposed to be, what they stood for, or anything much about what the Red Sorghum wine/urine was supposed to signify, against the backdrop of invading Japanese forces. I got the red wine, red blood, red moon imagery, which was beautiful and powerful at the end though. From what I can gather it's an impressionistic adaptation of just the first two-fifths of an epic, multi-generational novel, so maybe if the original Chinese audience knew the book, they knew more of the context?




52656859560_7096945c5e_o.jpg


Hero (2002)
Director: Zhang Yimou
Country: China
Length: 109 minutes
Type: Wuxia, Drama, Romance, Fantasy

I watched this a lot when it came out but this was the first time in many years. I'd been waiting to revisit it in it's difficult to find uncut version but I shouldn't have really bothered waiting. IIRC there aren't any major omissions in the shorter international cut, just a hundred tiny cuts to quicken the pace throughout by 10-minutes in total, so the longer version just felt longer. 'Hero' was very much a spiritual sequel to the worldwide hit 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' from 2-years earlier (and marketed as such), with the same producer, composer, co-star and a similar tragic romance between two Wuxia sword masters. Some viewers have been troubled by the political messaging but Director Zhang Yimou claims to not have intended one. I'm content to simply revel in the graceful swordplay, intoxicating romance and beautiful colour saturated Cinematography by Christopher Doyle. All the cast are superb, especially 'Hero's version of "Romeo and Juliet" played by Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung.

 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52668557592_98e4080638_o.jpg


Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
Director: Robert Bresson
Country: France
Length: 95 minutes
Type: Drama

'Au Hasard Balthazar's reputation as a soul shattering "greatest film ever" and the fact that I've loved all the other Robert Bresson films I've seen so far, gave me expectations that were difficult to meet. The film is good but I wasn't ever moved to tears or anything. There are a lot of Christian overtones to the story, so if you bring all that baggage with you into the film, I imagine you'll probably take more away from the experience as a result.





52669057021_cc9fe529d0_o.jpg


Network (1976)
Director: Sidney Lumet
Country: United States
Length: 121 minutes
Type: Drama, Satire

This is the 2nd time I've watched 'Network', the first time was over a decade ago, when I remember really liking it. This time, in 2023, in an age where performatively insane ramblings are routinely broadcast (or that should be uploaded) for profit without anybody batting an eyelid, where it's becoming it's own industry, a film about 1970s TV execs worrying if they should put a mentally unstable man on live TV seems very quaint. Plus of course the setting within the network TV industry seems so far in the past. 'Network' was ahead of it's time in 1976 and still was for many years, plus it remains funny and pertinent in many places, so I respect that. Faye Dunaway's role as the new young morally bankrupt female executive, who sleeps her way to the top, supplanting older experienced, upright, "responsible" male broadcasters, also feels misjudged now, as does Marlene Warfield's character's thinly veiled ridiculing of female black power leaders like Kathleen Cleaver and Angela Davis. This was a big commercial hit and garnered nine Oscar nominations in it's day, where as another caustic TV satire like Martin Scorsese's 1982 film 'The King of Comedy' died a death. That film has grown stronger and more relevant, this one has slipped into irrelevance. All the material around the iconic "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!" is still powerful, quotable stuff though.

 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52715426747_bc6360e9b3_o.jpg


Patton (1970)
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Country: United States
Length: 172 minutes
Type: Epic, War, Drama

I re-watched a 10-year old blu-ray of 'Patton' and the transfer is very poor compared to newer releases but it features an intro from the writer Francis Ford Coppola. He opines that the Oscar he won for the 'Patton' screenplay, 2-weeks into filming 'The Godfather' was key to him narrowly not being fired from directing that film. So I had that seminal film in mind when I watched this and they seem like films from other eras, not made back-to-back. Director Franklin J. Schaffner's style is dated backwards to the 60s, while Coppola's looked forward to the 70s and beyond. The interior scenes of 'Patton' are over lit and set bound, it looks like a TV show. The iconic opening sequence, featuring General George S. Patton against an enormous American flag, is the only bit that has any memorable style and even that was Coppola's idea. However, the literate, unusual, analytical screenplay, George C. Scott's ranting, imperious (perhaps even messianic) performance of the title role and Jerry Goldsmith's mysterious score shine through. The depiction of Patton is fascinating, both an admirable hero and a vain monster, often at the same time. 'Lawrence of Arabia' did that thing better though and I'm sure that was an influence on this.

 

mnkykungfu

Well-known member
Donor
Messages
2,279
Reaction score
747
Trophy Points
123
Patton (1970)
Director Franklin J. Schaffner's style is dated backwards to the 60s, while Coppola's looked forward to the 70s and beyond.
I had exactly the same thoughts as you while viewing Patton. I kind of hate when critics have made a film famous and iconic and feel like a must-watch when really it just has one or two standout scenes/features. Patton is a perfect example; it never gets better than that opening, just watch that.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52719596562_482b551d18_o.jpg


Novecento aka 1900 aka Twentieth Century (1976)
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Country: Italy
Length: 317 minutes
Type: Epic, Historical, Political, Drama

Bernardo Bertolucci's over 5-hour epic saga is somewhere between 'Gone With the Wind' and 'Once Upon a Time in America' and features the same composer and lead actor from the later (Ennio Morricone and Robert De Niro). De Niro and a svelte young Gérard Depardieu play brotherly friends born on the same day, one the landowner, one the land worker, who grow up and grow old, against the rise and fall of Fascism and Communism in Itay. I'm not sure the portrayal of the whole mass of "salt of the earth" farm workers as honest Communists and only the small wealthy ruling elite as being evil Fascists, totally holds up to historical scrutiny (I think up to a quarter of the Italian population were Fascists members at one point, although membership was somewhat mandatory) but to be fair to the film, it does depict a lot of moral grey areas and conflict between all the characters across the factional devide. The politics aside, I was totally swept up in the atmosphere and romance of this vision of a vanished past, the Northern Italian countryside, Morricone's music, Vittorio Storaro's cinematography and the amazing ensemble cast, including Burt Lancaster, Sterling Hayden and Donald Sutherland.

Like the Spaghetti Westerns, this is an old style Italian post-synced movie, so you've got to choose between an English dub, or an Italian dub. I went for the former and I think that's the right way to go because most of the main cast are using their own voices, with the exception of Depardieu (but he's dubbed in both versions anyway).




I had exactly the same thoughts as you while viewing Patton. I kind of hate when critics have made a film famous and iconic and feel like a must-watch when really it just has one or two standout scenes/features. Patton is a perfect example; it never gets better than that opening, just watch that.

I wouldn't go that far. After that first scene it lacks visual style from the Director but most other aspects of the film are outstanding. I'd recommend the film to people but it will work best if you pretend it was made it 1960, rather than 1970.
 
Last edited:

mnkykungfu

Well-known member
Donor
Messages
2,279
Reaction score
747
Trophy Points
123
^For me, every film is judged based on the same level of immersion and quality. I can't, nor do I want to, make special allowances for older films because of conventions at that time. Probably why so many older films just don't do much for me. That said, it's nice when I find a pre-70s film that has just as much power now as it did decades past. Patton just isn't like that for me.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
^For me, every film is judged based on the same level of immersion and quality. I can't, nor do I want to, make special allowances for older films because of conventions at that time. Probably why so many older films just don't do much for me. That said, it's nice when I find a pre-70s film that has just as much power now as it did decades past. Patton just isn't like that for me.

I remember you saying similar things before, which I totally understand. While I'm not immune to finding older films badly dated, and virtually unwatchable as a result, I do generally prefer older films, than newer films aesthetically, plus appreciating them within their historical, cultural and technical context, is part of the enjoyment for me.



52788543071_008361c911_o.jpg


Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Director: Zhang Yimou
Country: China / Hong Kong
Length: 125 minutes
Type: Drama

After being nonplussed by Zhang Yimou's debut 'Red Sorghum', I wasn't looking forward to watching another early film from him with "red" in the title. However, 'Raise the Red Lantern' is much more what I expected and wanted from a Zhang film. The Kubrickian compositions, the uses of coloured lighting, rich costuming and period set detailing, is a feast for the eyes. Sometimes I couldn't tell where the startling soundFX echoing round the courtyards of the 18th century mansion finished and Zhao Jiping's percussive score began. The story is a bit like 'Rebecca', or 'Jane Eyre' mixed with a Shakespearean tragedy. It's fascinating how badly all the characters behave towards one another but how much sympathy one has for them because they are trapped in a system designed to make them behave that way. There is a lot of tea and delicious looking food being consumed on screen, so I'd advise having both near to hand before you begin. This film needs a Criterion 4K remaster.


The wall of screenshots on this page (https://film-grab.com/2013/08/05/raise-the-red-lantern/) show off how amazing this film looks.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
52822486801_92cbf26070_o.jpg


Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United Kingdom / United States
Length: 94 minutes
Type: Satire, War

If you like your satire as dry as the Sahara, then this is the movie for you. It's 90% deadly-serious, documentary-style technical jargon about nuclear warfare, reading from codebooks, double checking orders and 10% the same people saying insane and hilarious things. I'd like to see the reaction from somebody who watched this not knowing it was a comedy because I'd wanna know when they twigged. Would it be Major Kong putting on his cowboy hat 10-minutes in, General Turgidson's secretary in a bikini 12-minutes in, or finally 24-minutes in when General Ripper gives his first rant about "precious bodily fluids". The levels and frequency of the comedy antics steadily build across 94-minutes, from nothing, to Peter Sellers fighting his own not-so de-Nazified arm in the last few minutes. It's difficult to get your head around how iconic many of the shots and lines still are 60-years later. I think this portrait of absurd hysteria defined how we look back on the cold war, much like another comedy 'Blackadder Goes Forth' defined the insanity of WWI for a lot of British people. This used to be one of my most favourite Stanley Kubrick films but it's gone down a little and others have come up in my estimation in recent years, it's about mid-level now.

 
Last edited:

ParanoidAndroid

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
393
Reaction score
368
Trophy Points
73
much like another comedy 'Blackadder The Third' defined the insanity of WWI for a lot of British people
Not meaning to be pedantic, but I believe you meant "Blackadder Goes Forth", "The Third" being set during the Regency and featuring Hugh Laurie as Prince George, who spends a week failing to put on a pair of trousers.
 

TM2YC

Take Me To Your Cinema
Staff member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
14,869
Reaction score
2,383
Trophy Points
228
Not meaning to be pedantic, but I believe you meant "Blackadder Goes Forth", "The Third" being set during the Regency and featuring Hugh Laurie as Prince George, who spends a week failing to put on a pair of trousers.

Yep, I've watched both so many hundreds of times that reckon I just relied on my subconscious to name it correctly without actually thinking. Stupid brain! Fixed, thanks.
 

ParanoidAndroid

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
393
Reaction score
368
Trophy Points
73
Yep, I've watched both so many hundreds of times that reckon I just relied on my subconscious to name it correctly without actually thinking. Fixed, thanks,.
No worries, glad it didn't end up like the General Turgidson and Ambassador de Sadeski!
 

mnkykungfu

Well-known member
Donor
Messages
2,279
Reaction score
747
Trophy Points
123
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
If you like your satire as dry as the Sahara, then this is the movie for you. It's 90% deadly-serious, documentary-style technical jargon about nuclear warfare, reading from codebooks, double checking orders and 10% the same people saying insane and hilarious things. I'd like to see the reaction from somebody who watched this not knowing it was a comedy because I'd wanna know when they twigged.
Mid-Kubrick placement feels right to me. You're dead on though: really depends how dry you like your comedy.
Watching Oliver Stone watch this with Putin was surreal. I'm not sure that Putin knew what was satire or to what extent. Not that he let on.
 
Top Bottom