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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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As of late I've been binge listening to Werner Herzog on YouTube, the interviews, the stories, they get a bit repetitive. He's an accessible genius, I've seen a few of his films, but he has a lot - the first 3 - Signs of Life, Even Dwarfs Started Small, and Dieter needs to Fly - good, in moments (especially Dwarfs Started Small) - brilliant - he is already in his 20's a master of his craft, and I have to admire how relatable he is - I don't consider him as profound as Kieslowski, or as intellectual as Kubrick, but he's excellent at being him, and it is in a way like comparing Picasso and Van Gogh, you can like both. What is remarkable is his tenacity of will - that he gets things done - whatever the obstacles - and his sense of purpose. His body of work - formidable, and I'll have to take a break shortly - he's easy to watch, but there are a lot of other great films out there too.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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...Something about his narration, his voice, bothers me. But the content is gold. And a whole list of films to see...
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Every day, I am Robert Di Nero in Brazil, tripped up by paperwork and bills, vanishing, slowly vanishing, every day trusting in an indeterminate future, these things, they reassure me.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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And, going now in reverse with writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos of "The Lobster" and "The Favorite" - we here have a director - while getting more polished in his technique by coming to Hollywood, losing his edge...
His films have grown more mainstream, which is - while better for him, worse for me.
Dogtooth (Dente Canino) - a completely surreal satire on (? and here I'm not sure? Greece & Government? OR The Middle Class? It works either way) - and it's amazing. 5 Stars in the first 15 minutes, more as the film goes on. Brutally funny, incisive, he annihilates the conventions and morals of the middle class, touching upon the contagion of home-schooled crazy, it's insane and works on more than a few levels...
Apparently he's done a few others, I will have to look for them and rescue them from obscurity, this is terrific stuff.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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The premise - A man's life forks when he's attempting to board a train, and the movie traces each possible destiny from the fork. That is the plot. It's set against Communist Poland, and as such is worthwhile just for the reminder of how devastating the Soviets were to culture (and - in different ways, still are today), but it has some of Kieslowski's signatures, uncomfortably intimate moments, atmospheric, haunting.
Overall, my least favorite of his movies. Which is to say it's a damned good film by any standards, but what followed was breathtaking. If you're just discovering him maybe view the Dekalog first, then go back to the first two, then forward to the Blue, White & Red trilogy & La Double Vie de Veronique.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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Great, but we're going back in time now, he's a little - rawer, not as subtle, by which I mean he's still a thousand times subtler than any American equivalent, but his style is still evolving and in later films gets increasingly nuanced.
He can be brutal, too, and goes where Hollywood would never go, this, while great, would never pass a test screening, plump audiences clutching their popcorns and diet cokes, they'd hate it. It would go before a committee, get slashed to ribbons, redone, a new writer, director...yet he managed to make it in communist Poland...
There's still one more left...