Criterion Film Club: Suggestions and General Discussion

[therewillbeblus]

I think Psycho II becomes justified by its premise: taking an insane person who has infamously become a cultural icon of duplicitous insanity in our collective consciousness, and making them the main character by which we and they doubt their own sanity but where we also see them as the surrogate protag and all tertiary characters as duplicitous and potentially insane, especially next to this now-'straight man' archetype at the center. It's a genius reflexive replication of Norman's mind, approached with equal-parts empathy for and fear of the insane- though the only thing it really extends from the Hitchcock is the viewer-effect of the car stopping in the swamp, bleeding all over this film

Between that and my writeup in its dedicated thread, I'm not sure I'd have anything else to add to a discussion!

[beamish14]

I also enjoy Psycho III, which is straight-up comedy, and Perkins completely taking the piss on the concept (and himself).

Regarding God Told Me To, I actually saw a screening of the original “Whisper” cut of it, complete with unauthorized Bernard Herrmann cues. It’s overlong and I understand why Cohen tightened it up

[Mr Sausage]

Can’t imagine knowingly trying to watch I Spit on Your Grave, and I say this as someone who already did precisely that

I can't either and I'm about to force myself to watch it this Halloween. Wish me luck!

[therewillbeblus]

I also revisited The Last House on the Left again the other day, which I always conflated with I Spit on Your Grave when I was younger, but I've grown to respect as basically its opposite

[knives]

I’m going with Monkey Shines just because I want to see some more Romero/ King action.

[Aunt Peg]

Monkey Shines - even though I hate the studio imposed ending, this has long been my favourite Romero.

[Mr Sausage]

Five random Criterions.

[Mr Sausage]

I'm up for some Visconti trash.

[therewillbeblus]

I'd like to see Étaix get more love, so that gets my vote

[Altair]

Visconti trash is better than everyone else's gold

[Mr Sausage]

One man's trash is another man's Visconti.

[Mr Sausage]

More like a WCP 4 round...

[therewillbeblus]

I went through the box a couple months ago, and Chess of the Wind is the easy contender for a rich discussion. However, Kalpana is vying for my favorite film in the set, so if enough people are interested I'll change my vote

[Mr Sausage]

Seeing as animated works were snubbed by the recent S&S poll, here's Michael Kerpan with a selection of Japanese animated films (and one tv series) to vote on.

[therewillbeblus]

Fun! Michael (or feihong et al), can you give us a list of what’s commercially available and where (physical or steaming) from this list?

I’ve only seen Liz and the Bluebird which I know has a stateside blu ray release (it’s absurdly cheap on Hamilton Book right now actually) but unfortunately I don’t like it as much as feihong and others apparently do. My vote as of now is for Serial Experiments Lain, which I’ve been meaning to check out all year. I’ve only heard great things and these projects are always exciting when we do a miniseries with episodes (though I have yet to participate in one where I haven’t seen it already, so this would be a first there). Unfortunately I believe its blu-ray releases are OOP, at least they are stateside. It was briefly available on DD but they eventually contacted me to say no dice within the last month or two.

Edit: Looks like it's only streaming on Funimation for subscribers, but there's a region B blu-ray set available on Rarewaves for a decent price. I'm going to pull the plug on that, but the caveat is I doubt it'll arrive in time for the window of the project..

[domino harvey]

I know very little of this particular medium, so I’m not voting but will watch whatever wins, if I’m able to access it. Odds of me joining any anime streaming service to do so are zero, though


TWBB, pretty sure Kaguya has a US Blu-ray, I remember seeing it on Black Friday on Amazon

[Mr Sausage]

I believe Michael Kerpan is preparing a short account of his choices for tomorrow, if anyone wants to wait for that.

The only one here I’ve seen, The Girl Who Leaped Through Time, didn’t do much for me, but it had a bright, effervescent quality that I think a lot of members would respond to.

I’m currently interested in the Takahata. I’ve only seen his Grave of the Fireflies, but its critical attitude to Japanese society and values made a welcome contrast to Miyazaki’s often uncritical support of traditional values. It makes me interested to see more of his work.

[Michael Kerpan]

I'm running behind schedule because I seem to have caught a Christmas cold. Didn't get much done today (not even gift wrapping).

Since we just had a chat on Miyazaki in HIS thread, I decided to not include anything by him. I also excluded older "war horses" that didn't especially interest me. Selfish, sort of. But I wanted to focus (mostly) on newer shows by particular favorites. I included Lain, however, because it was the first anime series I watched back in 2000 (the only series that looked even remotely appealing as I browsed the shelves of local video stores) -- and still one of the most intriguing series I have encountered.

As to accessibility, I think all of these can be found on "alternative " streaming souces (but be sure your malware protection is up to date). There was an excellent BluRay Region A release of Lain two or three years ago, that seems to have gone out of print quite rapidly. As far as I can tell, all the others have Region A releases available (and some stream from Amazon Prime).

[Michael Kerpan]

Serial Experiments Lain -- This look (in part) at the potential ills of the World Wide Web (and less directly the ubiquity of cell phone social media) before such a thing existed, still seems uncannily "contemporary" (except in non-essential details) to me -- rather like John Brunner's dystopic Stand on Zanzibar and Sheep Look Up. But it is a bit less pointedly "political". It's look (on the VHS boxes) also captured my attention, looking nothing like either Ghibli films or the other readily rentable series I could find.

Hosoda is by far my favorite of the "populist" anime movie directors today (and the only one I got to see interviewed in person, twice). GWLTT was sort of an arbitrary pick, as I've liked all his films a lot. But this was his first major film -- and it has a liveliness and vigor I enjoy. It is sort of a sequel to Obayashi's film of the same name, not a remake (the heroine is possibly the niece of the heroine of the original film).

While there are Miyazaki films I enjoy (and some I even "love"), Takahata has always been my preferred Studio Ghibli director. Much more visually diverse, much more connected to Japanese cinema, and (IMHO) far more complex and thoughtful in content. This is not the Takahata film I "love" most (that would be Only Yesterday), but this is the most visually stunning. This also happens to be based on one of the earliest bits of Japanese written folklore (possibly dating to the 800s) .While Studio Ghibli has made some decent films after this, I think Princess Kaguya was the studio's final "masterpiece" (though I hate using that word as a rule).

Yuasa is one of the most "experimental" of Japan's major directors of anime movies and series. Perhaps it would have been better to pick one of his series -- like Ping Pong or Tatami Galaxy. But Night is Short, gives one a sense of his surreal/absurdist tendencies in a more condense form. It is actually set in the same place (and time) as Tatami Galaxy (and the new short series Tatami Time Machine Blues), but it is free standing (unlike the equally short Time Machine Blues). Warning, if you are subject to seasonal colds, this movie might be triggering.

Naoko Yamada is one of the finest anime directors of the present era (and the most prominent woman director). Most of her best work has been directing series and movie continuations of series. Liz and the Bluebird is connected to one of her series Sound! Euphonium about a high school band club, but is basically free-standing -- focused on some characters who get relatively little attention is the main series (while the main characters of the series are only side characters). It deals with two young students who have a complicated relationship with each other. It is visually gorgeous, and relatively (for anime) "minimalistic" in terms of action/plot. Yamada's recent Heike Monogatari series (for Yuasa's studio) is one of the very few series that captures the beauty of Takahata's Kaguya. This has a more "modern" look, but is also quite beautiful.

Feel free to ask questions (but I have no knowledge as to quality or availability of dubbed versions of any of these)....

[knives]

Just a heads up, Liz and the Blue Bird is a spin-off of a show and my understanding is the film is more enjoyable with that background.

[feihong]

Just a heads up, Liz and the Blue Bird is a spin-off of a show and my understanding is the film is more enjoyable with that background.

Well, I loved Liz and the Blue Bird, and I've never seen a frame of Sound Euphonium.

[Michael Kerpan]

I would say Liz and the Blue Bird is pretty self-contained -- and it is stylistically and tonally quite different from the series. In fact, even the character designs are subtly (but noticeably) different. So being familiar with the series might be a bit of a distraction from focusing solely on the movie (for some).

[feihong]

It's a real movie, with interesting qualities you can appreciate without having seen the series, and I was never at a loss watching it, not knowing who was a major character in Sound Euphonium and who wasn't. It's also moving and interesting, and it got my vote. : D

[Michael Kerpan]

Yamada's (very lovely) movie follow ups to K-On and Tamako Market both DO require having seen the preceding series. Ditto for one of my very favorite anime movies Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, which follows directly on from the series Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya -- otherwise that movie would have been on my list of choices.

[Michael Kerpan]

Side note: Hosoda's Girl Who Leapt Through Time was his (sort of) revenge for being fired by Miyazaki from his post as director of Howl's Moving Castle. While Howl made LOTS more money (as one would expect), many critics ranked GWLTT over it. Hosoda has never offered any details of what happened regarding this episode (or made any public complaint). I suspect a Hosoda-directed Howl would probably have been better overall than Miyazaki's version. But we probably will never learn what it was that caused Miyazaki to interfere.