Where are the film buffs?

dhcjrew · Post by **dhcjrew** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:12 pm

ronbladholm wrote:Reminds me of the Mafia movies 'Don't take this personally, but I've got to kill you'

Mafia movie fan? I've got a couple mafia film projects I have in mind. What are some of your favorites?

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ScubaGirl · Post by **ScubaGirl** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:39 pm

i LOVE mafia/gangster/organized crime movies.

my favs: Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Carlito's Way, Reservoir Dogs, State of Grace, Dog Day Afternoon, Godfather Trilogy, Donnie Brasco, Casino, and most recently The Departed. Oh, does Some Like It Hot count? LOL

I also love "urban" gang movies: Boyz n da Hood, Menace To Society, New Jack City, Set It Off, etc.... Looking very forward to seeing American Gangster.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:20 pm

dhcjrew wrote: I also understand that the cinema experience is a form of entertainment... but at the same time, I feel people are being short-changed. Nonetheless, cheap thrills are better than no thrills.

Well, theres a lot of "b-movies" that I go for... say like Coppolas the one with Hackman as the paranoid surveillance guy... 1970's had a lot of good stuff out there. And then all the international stuff... for you maybe French or German cinema might be "exotic" but heck, we watch Finnish films. Hollywood's the "exotic"

BTW, I also do photography with real film and real cameras, but I left my gear back in the states.

I just got the first rolls off my Agiflex and it seems we got a winner. My Yashica-Mat is then again excellent for portraits... still need to find something for 6x12... old junk is old junk is good junk but now I need to start selling my tryouts. And 35mm I take with a Zenit and a Minox... no worry of getting dirty or dropping them

BTW of the music allegory - you remember what the contemporaries said of Mozart?

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:30 pm

dhcjrew wrote: Mafia movie fan?

Ash Wednesday was good... The Departed was... different than I expected, but good.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:26 am

Ash Wednesday is maybe been watched by the "wrong people" because Elijah Wood was so LOTR weighted. He does a nice psycho babyface character.

dhcjrew · Post by **dhcjrew** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:48 am

@ScubaGirl

Nice list. Not sure if you knew, but one of the latter movies you pointed out, "The Departed" was a knock-off of a Hong Kong film called "Infernal Affairs." There are a lot of international re-makes being produced in Hollywood now, "The Condemned" (orig. Battle Royale), the horror films: "The Grudge 1 & 2" and recently "The Eye" (both titled respectively after the originals). Since Hollywood is running out of fresh ideas, they need to borrow hit movie ideas from other countries to make it "fresh" in the states. U.S. audiences aren't custom to watching movies with subtitles... most are too lazy.

Nonetheless, your list seems pretty good. May I suggest some old school gangster films also? Japanese director Seijun Suzuki's "Tokyo Drifter" and "Branded To Kill." Also, some Takeshi Kitano films such as "Hana-bi," "Brother," and maybe even "Zatoichi" (not quite the gangster flick you're accustomed to, but still fun to watch).

@Hank

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what they said of Mozart. School me if you could, please.

I'll have to find "Ash Wednesday" and give it a look see.

@ronbladholm

what the hell was that all about? haha.

ScubaGirl · Post by **ScubaGirl** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:21 pm

I'm very aware of 'Beat' Takeshi & his films. I own Sonatine on dvd. I also know all about the western remakes of Asian films. I loved the first Battle Royale, never saw The Condemned. I gotta say that I was pleasantly surprised at the American version of the first The Grudge movie. I can't stand SMG and the thought of her being in a remake of this particular movie reeked of I Know What You Did Last Summer. I was happy to see they even went to Japan in this one.

I have no problems with reading subtitles. One of my top fav movies is from Hong Kong spoken in Mandarin.

Btw, you never answered my question about Fargo. The Coen Brothers have also made a new film called No Country For Old Men that I'm really excited about!

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 3:56 pm

Oh, Mozart was "too modern"

dhcjrew · Post by **dhcjrew** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:50 pm

ScubaGirl wrote:Btw, you never answered my question about Fargo. The Coen Brothers have also made a new film called No Country For Old Men that I'm really excited about!

sorry about that. The Coen Brothers seemed to be okay until after "The Big Lebowski." "Fargo" wasn't too bad of a film, but not personally one of my favorites. As for "No Country For Old Men," I have yet to see it either.

"Sonatine" is one of Kitano's films I have yet to see. I bought a crappy chinese-copy version on ebay a few years back (not knowingly, of course) and it never worked. I totally forgot to check it out. Thanks for reminding me.

dhcjrew · Post by **dhcjrew** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:56 pm

Hank W. wrote:Oh, Mozart was "too modern"

Maybe the contemporaries are bummed because they can't craft music at the level Mozart was able to?

One contemporary classical artist, Ryuichi Sakamoto, is on my playlist to this day. The piano version of "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" will always be a favorite of mine. I wonder what his thoughts on Mozart was.

ScubaGirl · Post by **ScubaGirl** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:59 pm

dhcjrew wrote:
ScubaGirl wrote:Btw, you never answered my question about Fargo. The Coen Brothers have also made a new film called No Country For Old Men that I'm really excited about!
sorry about that. The Coen Brothers seemed to be okay until after "The Big Lebowski." "Fargo" wasn't too bad of a film, but not personally one of my favorites. As for "No Country For Old Men," I have yet to see it either.

"Sonatine" is one of Kitano's films I have yet to see. I bought a crappy chinese-copy version on ebay a few years back (not knowingly, of course) and it never worked. I totally forgot to check it out. Thanks for reminding me.

you can borrow mine if you want.

I never understood why The Big Lewbowski got this big cult following. I think it's their worst film.

Do you by chance ever go to Orion Cinema? They specialize in showing obscure/cult classics/foreign language/artsy fartsy, etc... type films. I used to go there all the time before my daughter was born. It might be your cup of tea.

Xochiquetzal · Post by **Xochiquetzal** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:17 pm

The Espoo Cine group is put on but a dedicated group of filmies - offhand, can't remember the name of the group. But it's worth looking them up since I believe that due to their affiliations with international film societies, they conduct a lot of discussions in English. And as Hank mentioned, Love and Anarchy tends to get the lest known films. A simple comparison is that Espoo Cine gets the foreign films and Love and Anarchy gets the indie art house fare.

I guess as a good example, I can remember at one Espoo Cine showing, the people in front of me were discussing whether the movie Brick was really that groundbreaking and then segued into whether Lawn Dogs was as good as Sam Rockwell was ever going to get. The only thing missing was a discussion of the merits of Parker Posey's cameos in blockbusters such as Superman.

So yeah, they are out there. Go find them - I don't believe they are here on this forum.

Paul_D · Post by **Paul_D** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 12:10 pm

I know a video-shop in Helsinki that sells a great selection of movies: Pieni Leffakauppa, in Harju (Aleksis Kiven katu 10).

Most of the films are on DVDs, some on VHS tape. They also sell movie posters.

Their selection of movies is truly incredible if you're a movie fan.

Only problem is the selling price... For the price of 5-7 of DVDs, you can buy a cheap plane ticket for going to Paris, where the same DVDs would cost half less. So, instead of buying a dozen of movies there, take a plane to Paris, and buy them abroad !

Yet, I have been buying movies there, because they have a cut-price section, and because when looking for a good movie to offer, there's no other choice then this shop. Pity that they don't wrap the DVDs, because as a present, they look as if they would come from my DVD-shelf at home

/Paul

ScubaGirl · Post by **ScubaGirl** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 12:56 pm

@ Paul,

I know what you mean! I've stopped buying from them years ago actually. I get most of my movies from play.com (no tax & shipping is always free!), but if I need something really obscure I'll go to Filmifriikki and have them order it for me if I don't already have it. Regular customers there get a 5% discount, which doesn't seem like much, but when you buy 500+ euros worth of dvd's, it's allright

superiorinferior · Post by **superiorinferior** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:10 pm

dhcjrew wrote:
Hank W. wrote:Oh, Mozart was "too modern"
Maybe the contemporaries are bummed because they can't craft music at the level Mozart was able to?

FYI, Mozart's contemporaries, by definition, were the other composers of his time (his peers, his classmates, his generation), and the word "contemporary" does not whatsoever relate to "contemporary composers."

Hank was saying that composers in Mozart's time considered his music a bit "new agey."

Contemporary classical music is a period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism, and continues to this day.

Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era.

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Where are the film buffs?