World/Independent Cinema Discussion Thread • Page 16

a bit to unpack for me, but this was real good

 

An Elephant Sitting Still holy fuck. I know the length is probably a huge turnoff for most people but goddamn. The last 15 minutes probably hit me deeper emotionally than any other movie I’ve ever seen

 

Been doing a lot of reading this AM re: Elephant and I'm kinda surprised at how many people think the movie is explicitly Hu Bo's suicide note. I found the ending to be incredibly uplifting and hopeful. I'm sad that he couldn't find that peace in his own life

 

The film is pretty inextricable from his passing imo, but a lot of people have used it as the default lens, failing to look beyond for anything else present in the text. I definitely found a sense of reassurance through its overwhelmingly bleak vision. Not to say that this film isn't "for" certain people, but I do think people who have dealt with mental health issues in a way that might be similar to Hu Bo can maybe read more of the ambivalence present in the film.

 

It is a very difficult film given the circumstances surrounding it though and I understand why some don't want to engage or only want to engage with it on the most obvious level. It's heavy.

 

That's all fair. I guess what little I knew/had read about the film before watching it led me to believe it was going to be this entirely hopeless and nihilistic exercise and that wasn't the case at all to me. I loved it

 

No one uses this thread but I wanted to post Cahiers' 2020 list, which came out a few weeks ago. Always one of the more interesting year end lists, alongside Cinema Scope and Reverse Shot. I had seen 6 of the 10 when it dropped, and I've since caught up with the Letourneur and Mouret films, both of which are really great. The other picks are all reliably great - especially Hong x2 - though I found that Garrel film to be one of his weaker recent works.

 

Where did you watch Malmkrog?

 

Online festival but I believe it is "out there" in certain places now.

 

I've been watching a lot of South Korean films lately since my sister has become obsessed with K-dramas and K-pop so everything we do is Korean related.

Anyways, we watched The Villainess tonight which was super cool. I wanted to check it out as soon as I read that a scene from John Wick 3 was inspired by this movie. If you like John Wick movies, it is def worth a watch.

Also, a few weeks ago we watched Midnight Runners which I thought was hilarious. I hadn't seen a good buddy cop movie in awhile. Highly recommend for fans of 21 Jump Street.

 

Reverse Shot’s Best of 2020

1. Days
2. Martin Eden
3. Time
4. I Was at Home, But...
5. Bacurau
6. Vitalina Varela
7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
8. Lovers Rock
9. First Cow
10 (tie). Malmkrog & To the Ends of the Earth

 

Dying to see Days. Probably going to rent Bacurau and Martin Eden soon.

 

Honestly, all the films on that list are so good. Would not argue against any of them. I'm so happy to see the Kurosawa on there. It's definitely an oddity (within his body of work and just generally) and I don't remember seeing it get much attention.

 

a bunch of French films just popped up online. anyone know anything about these?

Felicità (2020) - IMDb
Kuessipan (2019) - IMDb
Adolescents (2019) - IMDb
Les héros ne meurent jamais (2019) - IMDb

 

Red Post on Escher Street is, as you would expect of Sion Sono, wild. The last 20 or so minutes are jaw-droopingly good.

 

Incredible film. One of my favourites from last year and probably my favourite overall from the dozen or so Sono films I’ve seen.

Semi-related: the Japan Society is running a great series of 21st century Japanese cinema in the virtual cinema this month. Some great looking (and free!) talks posted on there too. Japan Society Film | 21st Century Japan: Films from 2001-2020

 

I don't know if this stuff is geoblocked to Canada or not, but TIFF is presenting some incredible works by Indigenous filmmakers for free on their digital cinema this weekend.

digital TIFF Bell Lightbox | maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore
digital TIFF Bell Lightbox | SG̲aawaay Ḵ’uuna (Edge of the Knife)
digital TIFF Bell Lightbox | The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

All three of these films are great but I really cannot recommend Sky Hopinka's maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore enough. A poetic, experimental work of docu-fiction - a beautiful, spiritual film.

 

Popping in here to say I watched Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues last night and it was wonderful.

I love “foreign” art house films but admittedly need to dig much deeper. Gonna go through this thread and find something to watch tonight!