Raw Matter

Movies

cmot — 2008-06-10T13:03:05+02:00

Watched De Grønne slagtere (great black comedy even if it moves a bit slowly. I think if you have to chose you'd better watch Adams æbler with which it shares writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen and a big part of the cast).

And this just has to be said: I can't believe anybody could call eXistenZ “quite a good see”. One of the worst movies I've ever seen, on a level with “Tweed” (a late 90s Bond parody I distinctly remember having seen but can't find on imdb right now.) I agree with Adeodato's assessment of Billy Elliot, though.

Coffee and Cigarettes

cmot — 2008-04-26T23:50:53+02:00

I picked up Coffee and Cigarettes when I was buying some other movies because I though I'd read about it somewhere. I'm not so sure now. I probably didn't imbibe enough coffeine before watching it, or it's just because I am not a cousin to Mr. Jarmusch, but I suppose the fact that I've watched it to the end can be attributed to the fact that it's just 90min, or perhaps to some morbid curiosity if there's gonna be something more...

That said, I liked the style of the whole thing, with the grainy black and white and the calm camera.

Adams Æbler

cmot — 2008-03-16T15:11:27+02:00

Another week has been spent in a repetition course in the military. Readers of my blog will know that this means playing poker (I lost about CHF 7 this week — we just play for fun at CHF 5 for 50 chips) and watching movies. Tron and Kill Bill Vol. 1 from my collection, and the extremely funny Adams æbler which I didn't know before. The story centers around a neo-nazi serving some time in some kind of rehab in a church where, it is soon discovered, the priest in charge of the whole thing is not that much in charge, even of himself. I'm told that I also should watch I Kina spiser de hunde by the Danish Anders Thomas Jensen (writer and director of Adams æbler, writer of In China they eat dogs.)

Also recently watched Casino Royale (the recent Bond movie. I haven't seen the 1967 one yet.) and The Gold Rush: the 1942 version with added spoken narrative and music by Chaplin. The DVD does contain the original 1925 silent movie, too, where especially the ending is a bit different. And finally lots of episodes of Ну, погоди! (Nu, pogodi!), which was the Soviet equivalent to Tom and Jerry (not a clone, it is entirely different.) I can highly recommend this to everybody who likes cartoons.

Layer Cake

cmot — 2007-11-13T09:55:49+02:00

Recently spent three days playing poker, watching movies and drinking beer (we call that military service in Switzerland.) Layer Cake: Fun, somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse^W Pulp Fiction or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Hmm. Why am I not surprised that Matthew Vaughn was also involved in the latter? I need to pay more attention to the names of directors and producers.) Also watched Meaning of Life one more time, no comment needed, I guess. Started watching Man on Fire (2004, by Tony Scott) but went to bed before the action really started, so I can't comment on it. Discussed modern (fast-paced, nervous etc.) moviemaking which reminded me that I should mention Русский ковчег (Russian Ark) as a counter-example: the whole movie is one single 90 min long steadicam shot.

The Bourne Identity

cmot — 2007-09-13T08:22:32+02:00

Variation on the old “man wakes up without memory” theme. Well executed, fun to watch, the whole man finds girl, loses her, finds her again part is not overdone, there's a happy end of the sort I like (not too long, not too much kitsch.) I didn't know before but wasn't overly surprised to see Ludlum's name in the credits, I always liked his books.

Eyes Wide Shut

cmot — 2007-09-01T16:31:37+02:00

Eyes Wide Shut: Brrr. Really strange, but in a way I like. Sometimes.

Favorite movies

cmot — 2007-08-27T16:45:26+02:00

Since I've never blogged about movies before, here's the “best of”, in more or less random order and from the top of my head.

Brazil (Not the Love Conquers All version, though.)
Kill Bill (Distinctly Vol. 1. Al Hirt is a hero on the soundtrack, too)
Tron
Lost Highway
Twelve Monkeys
Pulp Fiction
Dark City
Chat Noir, Chat Blanc (Pit Bull Terrier! That song alone...)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Dune (but only because the book is outstanding already.)
Minority Report
Dead Man
A Clockwork Orange (Heavy, though.)
Iris (one of the very few movies that really got to me)
The Meaning of Life
Dogville
The Great Dictator

Not quite on the list, but still worth mentioning.

The Matrix
The Lord of the Rings (impossible to separate them out)
Snatch
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Helvetica

Minority Report

cmot — 2007-08-27T16:11:40+02:00

Just watched Minority Report last week. Quite good, disappointing ending. Should stop ca. 6 min earlier, when it becomes clear that precrime collapses (and after the resolution of the plot.) The tagged-on happy-end seemed artificial and implausible to me (implausible by the standard of the world of the movie, that is :-).