[quote=“scherpschutter, post:4376, topic:1923”]First time you watched it?
In that case I’d like to hear how you experienced the ending. I remember that many people (among them critics, just read what Maltin writes about the movie in his guide) were shocked by it when the film was first released.[/quote]
I wouldn’t say I was shocked…and I suppose that says something about the desensitization to violence of people today. I was surprised of the happy ending, that Bickles ended up surviving as a hero and Iris went back to her parents.
I think the ending is not just the happy part or is more than that, in the end Bickles became the hero, but more important than that is the fact that he kept is non stoping path into complete madness.
[quote=“Pacificador, post:4375, topic:1923”]Taxi Driver last night, which I have been meaning to watch for years. Quite enjoyed it.[/quote]My favourite Scorsese flick.
Saw A Chinese Ghost Story and honestly I was expecting more from it. Not that it’s bad, no, it’s pretty fun, but I’ve heard so much praise about this movie and I’m a big Tsui Hark fan (yes, Ching Siu-tung is the director, but Hark had a tendency to impose his vision on the project he worked on as a producer, he’s often considered to be the film’s auteur), so my expectation were rather high. Like I said, fun, but it’s definitively not on the same level as Tsui Hark’s best work. By the way, Joey Wong is freaking beautiful. Also saw Claude Jutra’s Mon oncle Antoine, it’s considered to be the best Canadian film out there, I dunno about that (still have a lot to watch), but it was a great movie alright. Continuing my Kubrick excavation, I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey… I think I’ll have to read about that ending.
And finally, I watched Albert Pyun’s Cyborg (Director’s Cut). I always thought it was a pretty good Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, but I had some problems with it. Fortunately, the DC is a definitive improvement and now I can safely say it’s one of my favorite Van Damme. The most obvious improvement is the soundtrack (rocking good), but there’s a lot of little and bigger changes that also make things better. Too bad the video quality is workprint-like, but it’s better than nothing. I Hope the Opera version will be made available one day.
Well known gang film from the 70’s. Wow Michael Beck…what ever happened to him. Well regarded film for many, and has it’s moments but not my favourite Walter Hill film.
The ending? Frankly, I don’t know what to think about it. I vaguely remember reading somewhere a theory about Dave finding immortality or something, so that’s the first thing that came to mind. I also thought the monolith might have a link with God or that life and everything originates from it.
Well, it took me three viewings before I fully understood the ending (if the ending was ever meant to be fully understood), so it’s hardly surprising you’re scratching your head. Did you like the rest of the film?
My theories are very basic to say the least, but I look forward to re-watching it and formulating new ones.
I rather like the film, it’s gorgeous to look at (set design, special effects - much better a lot of stuff you see in Hollywood flicks these days -, cinematography, etc.) and the story, even though I don’t fully understand all its implications, was very interesting and had me thinking about it for a long time. And despite the film’s “coldness” it had one very emotional moment, I thought that the last scene with HAL was extremely sad. I think that the themes of artificial intelligence going “sentient” and of the consciousness in A.I.s are fascinating. Also, I was actually expecting it to be slower, I had heard that it was an excruciatingly slow movie and frankly, it can be very slow at times, but “excruciating” seems like a hyperbole. My favorite Kubrick remains, for the moment, Paths of Glory.
Just reviewed 2001 myself recently & yes, the ending was not fully known (or disclosed) even by Kubrick himself. It obviously has something to do with the cycle or life (or how short it can be) & man’s place in the universe. As a matter of fact…fuck it. I have no idea what it’s about Either way, it’s a wonderful ride. Majestic & soothing at times, creepy as hell in others.
Just finished watching…
They just don’t make enough movies these days with real life freaks anymore.
Watch a bit closer my friend. As the taxi pulls away at the end, Travis glares into the rear-view mirror & the music goes all weird for a split second. All is still not well in Bickle’s head, hinting to the fact that he may rampage again.
Continuing my tour through French film history, I watched this one, Louis Malle’s first major film (after a few short and documentaries), and still one of his very best. Tightly scripted, meticulously directed, the film looks over his shoulder to the Film Noir style, while it announces, at the same time, the upcoming Nouvelle Vague. It was also the first major starring role for legendary actress Jeanne Moreau.
Moreau is the wife of an older businessman, Maurice Ronet is her younger lover, one of her husband’s employees. Ronet decides to kill the older man and make it look like suicide. The plan seems to work, but then he notices that he has made one tiny mistake. He returns to correct it, but gets trapped in the elevator (l’ascenseur) from the title: the elevator to the gallows. Watching the movie is great fun, but in the end it unfolds – like many movies of this director – a deeply pessimistic vision on the human condition. Whatever people do, they’re trapped, they won’t ever be able to escape their fate, and this fate is, inevitably, very sad.
The film is also a must because of Miles Davis’ improvised soundtrack.
Enthralling little psycho thriller starring David Hemmings as an ex addict trying to make sense of his aunt’s death and uncovering a sinister organisation which begins to threaten him in the process. Well crafted, great cast and genuinely creepy at times with a nice twist at the end. Hemmings’ growing sense of paranoia and persecution is built very well and the scenes in his flat are tight as a drum. Very good stuff and directed by the same guy who gave us The Vanishing Point but very little else for some reason. Not sure why.
Recommended.
Unstoppable. This was my Mothers’ Day present! Her dad just lets her pick what she wants, and this was certainly not the oddest present i’ve had. Have a feeling she picked it due to the big freight train on the cover. Anyway, as films of that type go i found it to be an acceptable time waster.
Those who have been Professional military like me, will like Shoendoerffer films, even more if served with combat duties, rarely soldiers are present in such a real and three dimensional ways like in Shoendoerffer films. Normally his films are not about big historic military dates or actions like D Day, Somme etc films coming from there with less or more rhetoric and spectacular action have the tendency to be more concern about action or dramatic issues, Shoendoerffer makes the sort of things that only real servicemen can understand or relate into in a easy way, like for instance in for me one of his best film LA 317eme Section there’s no moral lesions or heroic characters above any moral only real mans behind the guns, with their own stories .
Even in a more ambitious and not all successful in its prime objectives film like Diên Biên Phú the main/heart of the story is always the soldiers (in this last one, from a reporter point of view).
Saying this and having watch another film with a similar subject (the very good Mon colonel, with a very alike story to this one), I was surprised by the quality of this made for TV French movie, surprised because the story centres around the courtroom not the battlefield, and deals with the thereafter without hiding the past.
The narrative its very simple, a dead Captain in the Algerian war got is memory trashed in a TV Show where he’s presented as torturer and war criminal 20 years after is dead in combat, the tour de force of the film is the captain widow trying to rehabilitate the memory of her dead husband in court, when she sues the man who messed up her husband memory.
The savoir-faire of the film can be seen in the way the director put the several flash-backs of the captain’s life going back all the way to WWII with the present in this case the courtroom sessions; it works like a courtroom drama but with a edge.
Here the director goes beyond the soldier’s life and its motivations, directly to the conflict between the military essence and the human reason, never forgetting the human side of things pretty good
The acting is top notch Jacques Perrin is magnificent and also Carole Laure. Both story and acting turn this film into a winner for me, in the original way it approach is main subject it’s a very cleaver and deeply human film.
I’ve always like Shoendoerffer cinema pretty rude in his stories and cinematography, but at times also pretty intelligent, I would say this film is clearly one to watch (like all from this director), but I think there’s only a French edition of it, which is a pity it deserved a wider audience.
Either way, it’s a wonderful ride. Majestic & soothing at times, creepy as hell in others.
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