- I clearly need to get up on my directors. I haven't really watched films that way (beyond like Wes Anderson, Cohen brothers, Hitchcock, Scorsese... the ones that everyone watch that way), but I can tell you guys do, and I actually think it's a great idea to consider someone's body of work as a whole. I haven't even heard of most of the directors you guys are talking about, but I'm going to check out their work for sure. You guys are definitely opening my eyes to new things - yay film club!
- Ben thanks for your review of Broken English. I thought you put it perfectly. As I said in my comment earlier, the experience of Nora in the first half of the movie had me in tears because it's so close to my own life, so I appreciated reading your thoughts on it from a bit of a distanced perspective. I also loved the song you included - I've been listening to it since you posted it. That's definitely what I'm looking for, and I think it's what Nora was looking for too. It seems so simple, but it's so hard to find. Also, I agree with you about the first half being better than the second, I thought so too.
- Don't hate me guys, but I haven't seen The New World. I guess I should take a watch since you all actually agree on it. I'll weigh in once I see it.
- So I have something to admit (this is what you get, inviting a girl into the group)... I am super sensitive and have an overactive imagination and internalize everything... and therefore I get scared VERY easily. I actually started watching Antichrist and was really uneasy just watching the prologue and kind of felt like throwing up and I didn't know why... thankfully I paused it for a second and read Ben's post about it and I actually decided to turn the movie off. I do like movies that affect you but I am just blatantly a huge wimp and can't handle things that are really scary, overly disturbing or stomach-turning or gory. (Sorry, so lame, I know, but because I over-empathize with characters, movies like that really upset me a disproportionate amount.) And once you've seen something like that you can't unsee it. So if you guys can give me fair warning if a movie is going to terrify me or make me throw up, before I watch it and sear it into my brain for all time, I will love you forever, seriously.
- On other von Trier films... I remember kind of liking Dogville, but I haven't watched it in a long time. I don't remember thinking it was funny at ALL (maybe I take things too seriously but I remember thinking it was pretty dark)... I remember liking how it was like a play (with the bare set marked off with chalk outlines, the choice to include narration and title cards) and I thought it was well acted and liked the camerawork (a lot of bird's eye shots). I think it's interesting that I actually don't recall the ending whatsoever, and if I remember correctly the ending was controversial? Maybe I blocked it out. I guess I should give it another watch so I can say something more intelligent about it. I watched The Five Obstructions in a film class once -- from what I remember, I thought it was a cool idea but that it was definitely a filmmaker's movie made for filmmakers. I'll try a few more von Trier films but unfortunately I don't think he's ever going to be one of my favorite directors. Maybe I'll try Europa next - but someone please alert me if it's going to make me puke/afraid to be in my apartment alone.
-Dogtooth. Have any of you seen it? I watched it today and I don't really know what to say about it. It's a Greek film about a family whose kids are completely closed off from the world (they don't even know what an airplane is), what measures have to be taken to ensure that level of control is maintained in a household full of teenagers, and what can happen when even a tiny bit of that control is lost. The metaphor of the movie is totally clear once it starts - parents, don't overprotect your children or things can get ugly. (At some point during the movie I found myself thinking, ok ok we get it.) But I did think it was really well directed and acted in that you could intensely feel the desperation of the father in trying to sustain the "perfect" (yikes) situation he thought he had created as he took more and more desperate (insane?) measures to maintain the illusion. And I really liked the character of the oldest daughter, especially the scene where she was dancing for the parents' anniversary and just started to lose it completely - how you had been feeling this building up and how you just KNOW what she's going to do next. I thought the movie was visually stunning and definitely got across its message. But I have to give fair warning - it was not at all what I expected. First of all, the movie was really really sexual, which was unexpected based on the description of the movie given by Netflix. It was also a little more bloody than I expected (there was a scene where an animal was killed... and it was gross), although that wasn't as unexpected to me as all the sex. Apparently it was nominated for an Oscar... I don't think it would ever be on my Oscar-worthy list, but it was an interesting watch. Did anyone else see it? I'd love to hear someone else's opinion on this and if you were as surprised as my naive ass was.
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