A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

[zomgmouse]

I saw this yesterday and I think it deserves its own thread. FANTASTIC.

Feels fresh and cool. Shot like a hellhound and draws you in beautifully. So much to enjoy, the vibe especially.

My only complaint is the lack of cohesion in the soundtrack (separately, great moments, but it didn't seem like it fit together) - otherwise, super and superb.

I know a couple of other people on here have seen this - what are your thoughts?

[Ja'moke]

I asked this in the other thread, but where can I get hold of this film?

It doesn't seem to be out on DVD. It certainly won't be showing in any cinema near me. And a working stream seems impossible to locate.

[zomgmouse]

Well, it's been travelling round festivals/artier cinemas for a while and I don't believe it's out on home media just yet. I'm judging this from the fact that I can't find torrents of it.

[Mister Six]

They were only just showing it in New York a couple of weeks ago.

I'd give it a few months, at least, before DVDs become available.

[Puce Moment]

I saw it at a couple of film festivals and thought it was great. It made my top five of 2014 (see other thread). For some reason it reminded me of Tears of the Black Tiger, at least in terms of its bonkers genre mashing and soundtrack, although the two films probably couldn't be more different.

I found it gripping, and exciting. You really get the sense that every involved in the film are having fun as well as creating something innovative and brave.

P*ratebay seems to be fucked so I can't check for its downloadability, but I suspect the DVD will be released before it is uploaded.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I've not seen this, but I''m off to Iran in a couple of months so would gladly take any recommendations for Iranian cinema (or at least pseudo-Iranian) that anyone feels are essential before I go.  I've seen some of the usual contenders (A Separation, Persepolis, This Is Not a Film) but will happily take any further pointers.

[Bored of Canada]

This film really just sings Iran to me.

[zomgmouse]

I've not seen this, but I''m off to Iran in a couple of months so would gladly take any recommendations for Iranian cinema (or at least pseudo-Iranian) that anyone feels are essential before I go.  I've seen some of the usual contenders (A Separation, Persepolis, This Is Not a Film) but will happily take any further pointers.

I've not seen any of his films but Abbas Kiarostami is supposed to be really good. (Taste of Cherry and Certified Copy are two that I've been interested in.)

[Thursday]

They've already made a sequel to "10 hours of walking in NYC as a woman?!"

[Herbert Ashe]

I've not seen this, but I''m off to Iran in a couple of months so would gladly take any recommendations for Iranian cinema (or at least pseudo-Iranian) that anyone feels are essential before I go.  I've seen some of the usual contenders (A Separation, Persepolis, This Is Not a Film) but will happily take any further pointers.

As zomgmouse said, Abbas Kiarostami for sure. Pretty much everything I've seen by him is worth watching; I guess Where is the Friend's House?, The Wind Will Carry Us and Taste of Cherry  would be my 3 (not including his non-Iranian films).

I don't know too many Mohsen Makhmalbaf, but he's another key figure of post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. Marriage of the Blessed (1989) deals with the the effects of the Iran-Iraq war on a photographer, A Moment of Innocence is semi-autobiographical about MM's involvement in political protest. His daughter Samira is also a decent filmmaker, I've only seen Blackboards (2000) by her, about a teacher drifting through rural Iran in search of work, it's good.

Jafar Panahi - as well as This Is Not A Film I'd say The White Balloon (1995), The Mirror (1997 - the one Marc Cousins featured in his Story of Children in Cinema, about a girl taking a bus ride) and Offside (2006).

A few older (pre-revolutionary) recommendations that spring to mind, if you can find them:

Brick and Mirror (Ebrahim Golestan, 1965) - taxi driver has a baby abandoned in his cab.
The House is Black (Forough Farrokhzad, 1962) - poetic-style documentary set in a Leper colony.
The Night it Rained (Kamran Shirdel, 1967) - another documentary, presumably a big influence on Kiarostami & Makhmalbaf for it's sceptical attitude towards narratives of events.

[Norton Canes]

I would just add Makhmalbaf's 1996 film Gabbeh to that otherwise excellent and brilliantly comprehensive list.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Magic stuff.  Cheers folks.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Finally watched it today and loved it, it's one of those films that you want to tell everyone about in the hope that they'll like it as much as you do. It's just got it's only very unique cool but fun style, and it drew me in completely. I even gave it a 9/10 on imdb, and that's a rare thing these days.

[surreal]

It's also on (US) Netflix from April 21st apparently

[Hollow]

I didn't like it, beautifully shot with an almost early Lynch air to it but the threadbare plot and ponderous goings on bored me to tears.

Great to look at though.

[Puce Moment]

I think people expect it to be far more post-Tarantino genre-mash-up frenzy than it really is. The scenes have a very elongated, slow and drawn-out pacing. This has bored many people and left them disappointed.

[Hollow]

I didn't want it to be like that, I just wanted to be entertained...and it totally lost me in the last act, I cared not.

I like atmosphere and slow films, they just have to tell a story I want to watch, not one I've seen a good few times before done really slowly.

Let the Right One in is so much better than this, for example.

[easytarget]

Vampire on a skateboard! Vampire on a skateboard!

[Puce Moment]

Bizarrely, it's the director riding on the skateboard in those scenes. She is remarkably, almost freakishly, similar looking to the main actress.

[Puce Moment]

I didn't want it to be like that, I just wanted to be entertained...and it totally lost me in the last act, I cared not.

I like atmosphere and slow films, they just have to tell a story I want to watch, not one I've seen a good few times before done really slowly.

Let the Right One in is so much better than this, for example.

Sorry, yes, I didn't mean to do that thing of saying 'you didn't get it cos you like fast action films!!' I think I was just responding to the fact that the film has got a lot of what I suppose we could call 'cult buzz' and some people have gone in expecting something more interesting from a story point of view. I totally understand why people do not like it, but I have to say that it is the simplicity and elongates takes that make me like it so much.

Up thread I compared it to The Tears of the Black Tiger which is misleading.

[zomgmouse]

Bizarrely, it's the director riding on the skateboard in those scenes. She is remarkably, almost freakishly, similar looking to the main actress.

There is a photograph of the director stuck up in the vampire girl's bedroom, which I thought was a nice little detail.

[Puce Moment]

Yeah, and as well as playing the main character on the skateboard, she is also in the fancy-dress rave scene playing the skeleton woman.

[HodgerMccodger]

This is being shown again at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham from 22nd to 28th May,

A couple of people were asking how to watch it, so in the admittedly unlikely event that you also live in the West Midlands that might be helpful, it might be getting a release in other places now too,

I saw this a while ago at the London Film Festival but would like to watch it again. There was a Q and A with the director at the end and she seemed slightly defensive, even though for the most part everybody was saying how great they thought it was. She seemed to want to downplay the film and present it as just a bit of entertainment, and she wasn't particularly responsive to the audience suggesting otherwise. Maybe she didn't want to seem pretentious. She talked about David Lynch as an influence which I could see, although it put me in mind of Jim Jarmusch the most perhaps.

[emmett85]

This is being shown again at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham from 22nd to 28th May,

A couple of people were asking how to watch it, so in the admittedly unlikely event that you also live in the West Midlands that might be helpful, it might be getting a release in other places now too,

This is listed as 'coming this month' at 'HOME'[nb]the vague name of the new arts space in Manchester that has swallowed up the old Cornerhouse and Library Theatre[/nb] in Manchester

[Paaaaul]

I'm pretty sure I saw this was on U.S. Netflix last night.

[Blinder Data]

Caught this tonight at the cinema - feel late to the party! I really like it: great performances, beautiful B&W photography, sweet sweet music and it felt truly unique.

I did catch myself looking at my watch, and it's not that long a film! One might argue that that's down to my own lack of attention span. Some of the more abstract bits I liked (I loved the transvestite cowboy and the balloon) but a few too many moments of inaction for my blood.

I was going to categorise this film as the second best[nb]and also second ever[/nb] Iranian film I've seen after the one about a bunch of girls trying to watch a football match, but then I read up a bit more about the production : the whole thing was filmed California! Was I the only one shocked by this? Should this affect how we judge the film? I can't help but find this means I view the film differently compared with my preconceptions.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, apart from the ending which I felt was a bit of damp squib and the story generally being a bit thin and hard to hang on to. It's worth watching just for the impossibly pretty Persian people however.
8/10

[Mister Six]

I'm pretty sure I saw this was on U.S. Netflix last night.

Yes, it's on US Netflix.

[mjwilson]

This is listed as 'coming this month' at 'HOME'[nb]the vague name of the new arts space in Manchester that has swallowed up the old Cornerhouse and Library Theatre[/nb] in Manchester

Now on.

[Mijkediablo]

Just watched this tonight, really enjoyed it. I found it quite unsettling, in a way I haven't on watching a film for some time. It's quite gritty in some of its themes-

Spoiler alert

the scene where the heroin addicted dad forcibly injects the prostitute

[close]

for example. The ending felt a bit hollow and unsatisfying, but at the same time perhaps that's better than having everything neatly wrapped up into a happy ending or a showdown.

Thanks all for the recommendation, I would've missed this otherwise.

[Beagle 2]

Saw this the other night and thought it was one of the most boring films I've ever seen in my life. Scenes that lasted twenty minutes with absolutely nothing happening. A total absence of plot, and the whole thing fizzles out into nothing. Some good characters, they just did really dull things with them.