What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2017 Edition)

[Gulftastic]

I love that, wonderful blend of urban fairytale horror and social commentary.

I agree. When it was released it flew under the radar a bit, and we only went to see it as our free second film which we used to treat ourselves to on a Sunday at the multiplex. We were so glad we did, as it's great.

[zomgmouse]

I think it was on Netflix years ago, when they had a lot of odder/trashy stuff.

Good on them! It's not the most expected thing to pop up there.

I've found it on a filelocker site, if anyone wants the link just pm me. And thanks for the recommendation in the first place Zomg-y, definitely going to watch it very soon as it sounds like my cup of tea.

Yeah one of those types of sites is where I found it/used a browser extension to rip. I hope you enjoy it and I hope I haven't bigged it up too much. It's not Jodorowsky level weird but it's just got a fucking odd mood.

[zomgmouse]

I saw Andy Warhol's Bad on Friday. Interesting mix of dark comedy and soap sensibilities but made in a very amateurish way. Reminded me of not-quite John Waters.

[zomgmouse]

Faraway, So Close! I wasn't sure what to expect from a follow-up to one of my favourite films, Wings of Desire, but this shattered my scepticism. Didn't quite reach the same heights and depths as WoD but it was still truly magnificent. The opening gave me goosebumps. Got into some really profound and affecting territory, though the "plot" detracted sometimes. I preferred the purity of WoD where it was just about the angels and about humanity and life and love. But this regardless was a wonderful film.

[zomgmouse]

This is quickly becoming the "what films has zomgmouse seen" thread again!

Pursued
Curious melding of noir and Western directed by Raoul Walsh and shot by James Wong Howe. Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright star, with Dean Jagger and Judith Anderson supporting. It mostly works well, some great harsh moods on show.

Begotten
Just over an hour of pure visceral filth to the point of religious ecstasy. Pretty extraordinary.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Begotten
Just over an hour of pure visceral filth to the point of religious ecstasy. Pretty extraordinary.

Incredible. The self stabbing scene is DARK! When I saw this I thought it was some forgotten film from the 40s or something. It's actually not that old. It really got to my Lynchian appreciation of dark film with ambiguous narrative and deliberate unsettling cinematography.

[zomgmouse]

Incredible. The self stabbing scene is DARK! When I saw this I thought it was some forgotten film from the 40s or something. It's actually not that old. It really got to my Lynchian appreciation of dark film with ambiguous narrative and deliberate unsettling cinematography.

Yeah, the opening sequence is flipping something else, probably the best sequence of the entire film. It's that sort of direct visual experience that I think more filmmakers should tap into.

[zomgmouse]

Followed it up with Merhige's next film, Shadow of the Vampire. Obviously much more conventional but still. Marvellous and strange. Intense atmosphere and really rather gripping towards the end. Lyrical yet meticulous. Art will eat us all and drink our blood.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Followed it up with Merhige's next film, Shadow of the Vampire. Obviously much more conventional but still. Marvellous and strange. Intense atmosphere and really rather gripping towards the end. Lyrical yet meticulous. Art will eat us all and drink our blood.

I haven't seen it since it came out at the cinema but I remember loving it at the time, with Willem Defoe on terrifying form.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Faraway, So Close! I wasn't sure what to expect from a follow-up to one of my favourite films, Wings of Desire, but this shattered my scepticism. Didn't quite reach the same heights and depths as WoD but it was still truly magnificent. The opening gave me goosebumps. Got into some really profound and affecting territory, though the "plot" detracted sometimes. I preferred the purity of WoD where it was just about the angels and about humanity and life and love. But this regardless was a wonderful film.

I really should get round to watching WoD; I bought it when I was buzzing after finally getting round to watching the 5 hour cut of Until The End of the World.

[zomgmouse]

I haven't seen it since it came out at the cinema but I remember loving it at the time, with Willem Defoe on terrifying form.

Willem Dafoe was frighteningly good in that. So much so that I was thinking of making a fictionalised version of Shadow of the Vampire about how Willem Dafoe was secretly a vampire Merhige found on the street.
Curiously he was also in Faraway, So Close! playing Time Itself.

I really should get round to watching WoD; I bought it when I was buzzing after finally getting round to watching the 5 hour cut of Until The End of the World.

I saw this maybe five years ago and it's still on my mind. I very much suggest you see it. Really otherworldly. Beautiful film.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Solyaris by Andrei Tarkovsky

My first Tarkovsky, and I'm going to have to commit an act of extreme heresy and say that I found it really monotonous and difficult to get into. It's obviously tough cinema, and I just didn't manage to go along with the flow of what it was doing. There was some fascinating and penetrating philosophical questions raised, but as a viewing experience I felt adrift from it. Difficult directors are always difficult first time watches however, so I don't think it'll be the last time I watch this.

[Sebastian Cobb]

80's Hip Hop classic Wild Style. It's glorious.

[zomgmouse]

Certain Women. Surprised there isn't a thread for this. I thought it was wonderful. I got into its groove immediately. Simple, lovely and playful. Like a warm cup of soup on a cold winter's morning.

Solyaris by Andrei Tarkovsky

My first Tarkovsky, and I'm going to have to commit an act of extreme heresy and say that I found it really monotonous and difficult to get into. It's obviously tough cinema, and I just didn't manage to go along with the flow of what it was doing. There was some fascinating and penetrating philosophical questions raised, but as a viewing experience I felt adrift from it. Difficult directors are always difficult first time watches however, so I don't think it'll be the last time I watch this.

This was my first Tarkovsky as well, saw it in the cinema and everything. He's a tough one to cotton on to, that's for sure. I do recommend persevering, difficult though he may be.

EDIT: I didn't see this in the cinema when it was released, I saw it in about 2010 when there was a "space on screen" retrospective. I got to see Dark Star, Moon and Silent Running there as well.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Amacord by Federico Fellini

Very enjoyable, but a little shallow. He has a similar problem to Woody Allen in being more of a caricaturist of people than a real probing observer. Beautiful photography and wonderful music as always.

This was my first Tarkovsky as well, saw it in the cinema and everything. He's a tough one to cotton on to, that's for sure. I do recommend persevering, difficult though he may be..

I'll be watching Mirror next, which sounds very intriguing. I'm determined to get along with Tarkovsky.

[Howj Begg]

Solyaris by Andrei Tarkovsky

My first Tarkovsky, and I'm going to have to commit an act of extreme heresy and say that I found it really monotonous and difficult to get into. It's obviously tough cinema, and I just didn't manage to go along with the flow of what it was doing. There was some fascinating and penetrating philosophical questions raised, but as a viewing experience I felt adrift from it. Difficult directors are always difficult first time watches however, so I don't think it'll be the last time I watch this.

Please, try again. I dont know if you're a sci fi fan, which I am to a limited extent, but I feel its possibly the best sci fi movie ever made. The reason i think this is because it treats space and unknown scientific laws as the basis for speculation about human psychology, about universal constants like love, death, and reality. And it does this really well, with complete faithfulness to both philosophical and human/dramatic aspects of it. It's also not afraid to be funny, and weird. And the churning planet is the coolest thing.

[zomgmouse]

The Great Race. Not terribly enamoured by this, though the production design was beyond incredible and it was a fun and light live-action cartoon. Really didn't have to go for 2h40m. That's just way too excessive for how rarely it really delivered.

Throne of Blood. There's a Kurosawa retrospective happening here and I'm trying to get to as many films that I haven't seen as I can, though it looks like unfortunately that'll only be 3. This was the first one, and probably the one that's been on my list the longest. What a stunning Macbeth! Dark and haunting, and that final Mifune scene was spectacular.

[zomgmouse]

Real Life. Stunningly clever and ahead of the curve. Brooks' sardonic genius is in fine form here. Ultra sharp satire.

[zomgmouse]

Kagemusha. Fantastically epic in scope and still really introspective, something Kurosawa later perfected with Ran. Struck in particular by how he uses pauses and silence, which here is thematically appropriate with the main character. Though I was a bit pissed off to discover I was watching the "international version" aka the US theatrical release, rather than the original cut.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Chung Kuo, Cina by Michelangelo Antonioni

Very slow paced snapshot of the every day lives of the Chinese people during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Not as revealing as I'd have liked it to have been, but I guess Antonioni was hamstrung by the government's limited allowances for access. All camerawork is handheld, so practically none of Antonioni's trademark 'philosophy of geometrics' photography is to be found. Fascinating in many ways, because it allows you to stare directly into the hustle and bustle of another culture and another time, but it's hard to shake the feeling that it isn't quite probing enough with such an interesting subject.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Real Life. Stunningly clever and ahead of the curve. Brooks' sardonic genius is in fine form here. Ultra sharp satire.

I saw this recently as the missus loves Brooks but I struggled a bit with it, it starts off beautifully and ends on a great note but I thought it sagged a little in the middle.

[Red Lantern]

Citizen Kane

I travelled down to London today to see this at the BFI, having never seen it before, which is a bit of an omission. I can see why it's rated the greatest film ever made. I loved the cinematography and the use of music, and some of the shots were incredible. It must have taken some balls, at the age of 25, to make a film which is essentially a character assassination of one of the most powerful media moguls in the USA at the time.

9.5 beaks.

[marquis_de_sad]

I also saw Citizen Kane much later than I should have done, but actually I think it helped me not see it through a prism of teenage iconoclasm and just enjoy it for what it is: a very well-made film.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

California Split by Robert Altman

Fucking magic. Truly involving. I feel like I really know the characters, with all their fleeting pleasures and pain. Altman's at the top of his game with this one.

[Steven]

California Split by Robert Altman

Again, if anybody likes that, then Mississippi Grind, also Boss Soundtrack.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Again, if anybody likes that, then Mississippi Grind, also Boss Soundtrack.

Ben Mendelsohn in a low-key character study? I am so fucking sold.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Again, if anybody likes that, then Mississippi Grind, also Boss Soundtrack.

Ha, I watched this at the weekend after someone (probably you) recommended it when I said I watched California Split.

I found it a bit too similar to California Split and not quite as involving. Mendleson played the part of a loathsome melt well, bit like William H Macy really.

[Steven]

I found it a bit too similar to California Split and not quite as involving. Mendleson played the part of a loathsome melt well, bit like William H Macy really.

Yes, I wouldn't recommend watching both so soon after eachother as they're very similar. But yeah, the 'sock stealing' scene with Robin Weigert (of Deadwood Calamity Jane fame) is excruciatingly squalid.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

The Passenger/Professione: reporter by Michelangelo Antonioni

Incredible. Surely one of the greatest films I've ever seen. I thought it would be a bunch of wide angle shots of Nicholson fucking about in a desert but it turned out to be so much more complex and fascinating than that. I don't think I've ever been more engrossed in a film. One of the ultimate mysteries. So much fuel to send the mind downriver. An incredibly rewarding experience.

[steveh]

Three of Alex Cox's. Straight to Hell was dire. Probably great fun to invite your music biz mates round to do a spoof western in Spain where they used to do the spaghetti westerns but tedious and unfunny for anybody who had to sit through the end result. Three Businessmen, in which two businessmen set out to find a meal in Liverpool and find their quest takes them to other countries, was pretty enjoyable even if the conversations they have are not exactly profound. Only realised at the two thirds mark that I must have watched it years before on a late night TV showing. Highway Patrolman, a story of the loss of idealism of a Mexican cop, seems to be rated as his best film post Sid and Nancy but all the characters remain rather flat and undeveloped.