Chorus.Fm Weekly Movie Club • Page 19

In Bed with Victoria was pretty good. It was shockingly similar to Anatomy of a Fall in many ways. It revolves around a court case (in Anatomy it's a murder, in this, it's an attempted murder) and often examines the odd ways (splatter experts vs animal experts in this one) and morally dubious ways we try to arrive at the truth in court. Hell, both even feature scenes about authors mixing the truth of their lives in their work. Anatomy views it through a far more serious and critical lens than the more satirical tone of Victoria. In many ways, it seems like Triet got the idea from Anatomy of a Fall when writing this one.

But there are still moments where we can see the potential harm court processes can create in the bathroom scene near the end when we see Eve emerge from the other stall, also crying from the stress of the case. In that moment, we are forced to consider her side of things once again even though all the court proceedings have been focused on making her seem crazy.

That all makes it sound like a more serious film, but it's overall pretty fun. Virginie Efira is a star with great comedic timing. The main thing holding this back for me is the romance with Sam. I felt no chemistry whatsoever between them, so the ending fell flat. Another major theme is how we can get so wrapped up in work, that we hurt, neglect, and barely see those around us, but when it comes to their relationship there needs to be a little more.

 

On a side note, the subtitles on timing on Tubi subtitles was awful near the end. For the final half-hour, the subtitles would appear way before anyone was speaking. When that was combined with scene transitions it was hard to follow which characters were saying which lines. I don't know if it was just this one or if that's a common problem with their subs, but someone needs to fix it.

 

@jkauf is up tomorrow

@oncenowagain is up next week

 

Tubi was being racist and i couldnt source In Bed With Victoria so I watched Atonomy of Fall last night. It was very good, need a little more to process but im interest to see how theyd handle a romcom

 

If my pick got just one more person to watch Anatomy of a Fall then I consider it a success.

 

Let’s go with Peeping Tom (1960). One I’ve been needing to see for quite awhile, unless everyone else already has. It’s streaming on TUBI. I’m going to get to those last (2) picks this week finally as well.

 

I saw Peeping Tom in the cinema a few weeks ago, playing as part of a Powell and Pressburger retrospective.

Every director loves a film about voyeurism, and this takes the camera as a (phallic) weapon in its most literal sense. Really feels ahead of the curve in its depiction of violence and sexuality, and works really well as a companion to Hitchcock's Psycho.

A bit like Psycho, both Mark and Norman end up being semi-sympathetic killers, formed in some part by childhood trauma, and likeable in their own way. Mark here is particularly alien, especially as he is supposed to be a born and bred Londoner, but played with a clear German accent by Karlheinz Böhm, which just adds to his mystique.

 

I’m gonna watch In Bed With Victoria this week, maybe tomorrow. I do love Peeping Tom quite a bit, I’ve been wanting Criterion to put out an upgraded 4K/Blu of it for some times, seems like an obvious one for the treatment.

 

Peeping Tom was an interesting watch. I agree that it's a good companion piece to Psycho. Though it's good, it doesn't reach that same level. Interestingly, it's one of those cases where very similar films came out around the same time, which I always think reflects how society was thinking and feeling at the time.

The best reading I have is how fear and violence reflect on those on whom it is inflicted. We see this in several ways throughout. Mark was abused physically and psychologically as a child by his father and he in turn inflicts violence on the world in an attempt to better understand what happened to him. His ultimate weapon being a mirror for his victims to see and understand their fear serves as an apt metaphor for this theme.

I also wonder if there is a meta-commentary on abusive directors and the film industry as well. Mark serves as an abusive director (to say the least) but the director character (Don Jarvis?) is portrayed as overly demanding and verbally abusive, constantly telling his actors how they were doing and how hopeless they were. He becomes more accommodating after they find Vivian dead, but he is also insistent on the production going forward without pause to save money as opposed to giving the cast time to grieve.

The stand-out scene is when Mark is preparing the set and cameras ahead of killing Vivian. The camera movements and lighting, along with the carefree dancing of Vivian work together to create incredible tension and horror.

 

@oncenowagain Is up tomorrow

@Aaron Mook is up next week

 

Still need to watch Peeping Tom - now that I have COVID, I think I can catch up

 

I’m also behind, but I have a couple weeks off from work starting Thursday night so that’s when I’m gonna be knocking off a movie or two from my watchlist each day.

 

Peeping Tom. Ive had a big week with Voyeurism. Thursday after i watching I was thinking about how the camera and the internet has changed our relationship with sex and surveillance, in broad terms systems and society, struggling with the size and scale. Ill leave out the events of Saturday night. On Sunday It was revealed that over that past month my friend's life had gone off the rails, his pornography addiction had escalated and hes now broke/in debt from “strippers”.

 

I’m going with Bug by William Friedkin

 

I'm in the process of moving home, and won't have internet until the 28th, so not able to download / find any films until then unfortunately. I don't know anything about Bug, but always keen to see more from William Friedkin, so looking forward to that sometime in the new year.

 

Damn, I love Bug. Think someone might be borrowing my copy but I'll track it down.

 

Didnt care for Bug. The writing was contrived. An adaptation a gimicky theatre peice into a film where the theatre techinques dont work.

 

Yep, I still like Bug a lot. It's not perfect, but it's a really effective tragedy and realistic horror film. Feels ahead of its time in an A24 kind of way. I find it to be visually endearing and think the casting/performances is exceptional.

 

Bug was interesting. I didn't love it overall, but Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd were fantastic. It's a very isolating film, pretty much just taking place in one set. That isolation highlights how paranoia can be so easily spread especially among the lonely. The film essentially asks if we've been let down by our institutions in the past and we have no one to lean on, why wouldn't you believe the first person who seems to understand you and show compassion?

 

https://forum.chorus.fm/threads/chorus-fm-record-of-the-week-club.66308/

Stole the rules in here to start another club

 

Stuck between two for next week, would folks prefer an American documentary or a French black comedy? I've seen the former, but not the latter.

 

@Aaron Mook is up!

@radiodead is next week

 

Was considering Man Bites Dog because it's been on my list forever, but I'm in need of good vibes this year, so I'm going with one of my all-time favorites: American Movie. It's a rental, and for that I apologize, but I'm telling you now, you wouldn't regret buying the film if you wanted to go that route. Hope some folks enjoy.

 

American Movie is one of my favorites movies and I agree, if you haven’t watched it yet, do it now.

 

Update: the film is notoriously hard to track down a physical copy of, and while you can rent it for $3.99, it's available to purchase on Vudu right now for $5. That's a great deal.