Chris

Idle Thumbs 166: Cyberpunk Cop-Killer

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I don't have anything to add beyond what Chris said about the other films, but Kane is a weird case because all of the things that make it "great" have been internalized and can be seen in use, not just in other "great" films, but in basically any modern film all the way down to the schlockiest tripe you care to name. So if you're not coming from a context of having been fed a diet of exclusively pre-Kane films, then IMO there really isn't that much to recommend it. Welles' performance is fine, but the story is ehh and what else have you got?

 

Actually, Kane is worth pointing out how beloved it is by journalism nerds completely independently of any of the other marvels present in its making. Sure, we're a niche, but it's a niche made up of people who write about shit for a living, which is one of the reasons I'm convinced that Kane has the reputation that it does.

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I still think Spinal Tap is not a funny movie because people got SO UPSET over my not seeing it (while also quoting all the good lines at me) for a decade+ that when I actually saw it, every moment was met by me with either resentment or just being unimpressed. ;( So it goes. That movie's fine.

 

I am so extremely glad I saw this, and Holy Grail, before anyone had gotten to me about how WOW BLAM AMAZING they were. In fact, I recall knowing almost nothing about Spinal Tap going in to it. The line that sticks with me most is not a line most people will parrot back. Dumb throwaway jokes are sometimes the longest lasting. Holy Grail happened during High School, so we were at our most vulnerable to the allure of just parroting back Monty Python quotes for literally years. I think after a couple of weeks we wised up and agreed to a pact wherein we all agreed it was hilarious and also were banned from quoting Holy Grail anymore. I think it's about my 4th or 5th favorite Monty Python property anyway, counting the show as a whole or as seasons.

 

The movie I'd bug people about in that vein is Clue, anyway. Such a good movie. Go watch Clue, you guys.

 

The thing I've noticed over the last few years is the push so many people have about various TV shows.  OMG, you haven't watched Mad Men, or Breaking Bad, or Dexter, or whatever.  And it's like yeah, those things are huge time commitments and I don't give that kind of attention to television anymore.  I think I've offended people by insisting that I really don't want to dedicate 50-100 hours to one show and they take that as me judging them for having done it.  And it's not!  I waste a lot of time in my life, just not on television. 

 

Agreed. At this point, I am probably over 500 hours of television shows people have told me I just "have" to watch. So nothing against your favorite show, friend that is talking to me, but absolutely NEEDING to watch How I Met Your Mother isn't even cracking the top 10 of series probably. I think the only TV show I've purposely (Law and Order does not count) watched more than 3 episodes of in the last 2 years is Doctor Who. I don't evangelize it. I enjoy it, and British people being clever is fun. It makes my friends that tell me I should watch Mad Men angry, because at one point I believe they aired at the same time and thus I was choosing a silly British show for big kids over Serious Television.

 

Man I haven't watched TV on TV in so long. It's the best.

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Actually, Kane is worth pointing out how beloved it is by journalism nerds completely independently of any of the other marvels present in its making. Sure, we're a niche, but it's a niche made up of people who write about shit for a living, which is one of the reasons I'm convinced that Kane has the reputation that it does.

 

I feel Kane is like the first talkie film or the first colour film, or maybe even if both of those things happened at once in the same film. Vastly important and influential, sure, but however many years on, no one should bat an eye if a film released today is in colour and has audio.

 

Arguably, nowadays it is of more note if a film does not do a lot of the things that Kane did. For example, Malle's Vanya on 42nd street, which is literally "just a play captured on film" (which was a criticism levelled at films made in the style of pre-Kane films in the aftermath of Kane).

 

(unless you've an aversion to Chekhov, Vanya on 42nd is pretty great btw)

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Full disclosure, I haven't actually watched Satantango so I can't tell you whether its worth 7 hours of viewing, but in general I am a fan of leadenly paced stuff: Tarkovsky in particular, but also what Bela Tarr stuff I have seen like Werckmeister Harmonies and The Man from London. I think it's maybe a different kind of pleasure than that of being told a story.

 

Satantango is rather highly regarded by respectable critics though. I mean you could maybe make the case that this is some kind of Stockholm Syndrome or sunk cost fallacy situation at work, but I dunno.

 

Tarr has said

 

Which I think is exciting in it's own way.

 

Werckmeister Harmonies is much more manageable in length but from what I've read it's largely an expression of the same aesthetic. (it isn't, though, available in it's entirety on youtube from what I gather).

 

Tarr's stuff is so good, though I tried watching his earlier films, the cross-talk of ordinary people speaking ordinarily made the subtitles almost impossible to parse.

 

Turin Horse is his latest (and last?) from a few years ago.  It's on Netflix.  Only, like, 3.5 hours.  The absence of story/dialogue makes it much less boring.  Your sense of time slows and you really become a part of the world.  It's magical.  Also emotionally brutal, which is par for the course with Tarr.

 

These sorts of things require a specific open, energetic, but focused mindset.  Not something that I come across in myself very often, so I completely understand syntheticgerbil's boredom.  Receptivity is a fickle thing.

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I would think seeing taxi driver now would at least be amazing as a window into a New York City that hasn't existed for 25 years.

 

I've only seen Tarr's The Man from London. It's a challenge for sure.

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I saw Citizen Kane for the first time 15 years ago (so I'd grown up on a steady diet of post-Kane movies, obviously) and it blew my fucking mind. It's got so much going on in it, and almost no element feels like it shouldn't be there.

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I know they are a Seattle-based company, but whenever I hear or read someone going to Starbucks, or "getting [a] Starbucks" I hear it in either a NYC cabbie or Boston accent. This has happened for much longer than the previous pod. Don't know why it is.

 

Ganna get a Stahbocks.

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MPLrUlI.jpg

 

 

If you've never seen Citizen Kane, you're missing like 90% of this whole scene. It's probably my favourite of The Simpsons' many, many Kane references.

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How do you feel about

(wikipedia)? :getmecoat

I love Sátántangó and Béla Tarr films in general. Tarr is one of the few directors that can pull off movie without a narrative; his images are so evocative they get burnt into your heard; his atmosphere is so thick and rich; and his tight control of pacing and tone and to change them in an instant is breathtaking to see.

 

And speaking of Sátántangó, the book is amazing! Krasznahorkai is the master of taking the mundane turning it into an Kafkaesque take. His writing style is thick, miasmic and very labyrinthine. What I mean by labyrinthine is that he purposely makes the reader get lost within his endless paragraphs and sentences to the point where you get overwhelmed and you have you find your way out. Once you do, you see genius behind Krasznahorkai's style and how it enhances his novels. I'm having a hard time articulating why I love his style so much but it's worth checking out.

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Thank you guys!

 

That actually makes me wonder, have The Last Night creators heard this episode of the podcast? I hope they stumble upon all of this one day.

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Nicely done, Gerbil! I love the attention you pay to the fonts.

 

 

 

Whenever I hear Danielle's real accent, I can only picture this face:
 

tumblr_mz8nruLaS41rsit0po1_250.gif

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I can no longer access this episode and at least a few others from around the same time (165: Kelo. Is. Here. and 167: And that's why Skeletons fart that way) in my podcast app. It says it cannot find the files anymore. I'm using Pocket Casts. 

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8 hours ago, Apelsin said:

I can no longer access this episode and at least a few others from around the same time (165: Kelo. Is. Here. and 167: And that's why Skeletons fart that way) in my podcast app. It says it cannot find the files anymore. I'm using Pocket Casts. 

I'll investigate as soon as I get home

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