I find frequently that the more certain critics love a film, the more boring I find it.
Eg 2001
The English Patient
Apocalypse Now
Last Year at Marienbad
Barry Lyndon
I think I’ve fine-tuned my boring-twat-meter.
1 Like
Did you ever see Paris, Texas? I only ever saw it once, but I was completely knocked out by it. It made a huge critical splash at the time, but subsequently seems to have vanished without a trace.
I’ve signed up to MUBI, which is purely movies. The subscription is quite cheap, and the movies seem to be pretty carefully selected. Definitely material for your black skivvy/wanker thread. I’ve only watched one so far, Le silence de la mer, which was made by Jean-Pierre Melville and shot in high expressionist style. It’s from a book published clandestinely in France during the war, and is essentially anti-Nazi propaganda, but of a very sophisticated kind. Mubi has a Melville season going at the moment, including some of his gangster films that I haven’t seen. The film quality of Le silence de la mer was pretty good, including the sound.
3 Likes
Never saw Paris, Texas
I’ll disagree on apocalypse now.
But only because I’ve seen it.
I watched the first half of Paris, Texas.
Whilst I don’t totally agree, I do wonder why movies have become so utterly, unbearably long. So many of the the best movies were 90mins long.
Especially comedies. Why are filmmakers making 2hr comedies when they can barely sustain 90mins?
1 Like
I’d agree that action movies, superhero movies or comedies should never exceed 90 minutes.
Lots of films need the two to two and a quarter hours.
Once you go over that, it’d better be worth it and cutting the extra section out would ruin the storyline.
Comedies i completely agree. Some action films and superhero films need to be 2 hours, to get both the story and action scenes in
You probably do need two hours for:
Establish setting
Introduce hero
Rise against adversity
Introduce big bad
Big bad defeats hero
Hero loses faith
Hero regains faith
Hero defeats big bad.
…what?
Edit: although Rocky IV manages it in 91 minutes.
1 Like
I’d cut half an hour out of that. Too self-indulgent too many of those films.
1 Like
I fully agree. I suspect that much of the time it’s that they’ve spent so much farking money on the thing that they want to see it all on screen.
90 minutes is often the right length for a film. I don’t think you can say that different types of film have different appropriate lengths. There’s a right length for every film. It’s often 90 minutes. In some cases (not many) it’s 3 hours. And in many cases, the right length is 0 minutes.
2 Likes
As long as you don’t cut this bit.
5 Likes
l have seen Paris, Texas once. The kindest thing l can say about it is, the soundtrack by the great Ry Cooder is brilliant. The film itslef didn’t impress me much. Harry Dean Stanton gets a thing for Natasha Kinski and becomes obsessed by her. End of story, such as it is.
l have the Melville movie. I bought it in 2008, and have watched it, but can’t recall being that impressed by it. l also have a few of his gangster efforts, that are okay, but nothing that special.
l don’t believe there is an optimal length for a film. Some require more time to unfold, some don’t. Longer movies don’t feel as rushed.
WTF is this film?
Judged on that clip, a. I’m not surprised I haven’t seen it, and b. I’d be cutting a full 100% out of it.
1 Like
Post Reported !
2 Likes
Who hurt you?
6 Likes
It’s the first Rocky movie that wasn’t a total chick flick.
Magnolia is outstanding
2 Likes
Extraction - Chris Hemsworth’s new movie on Netflix
Good action movie well worth watching.
3 Likes
You people