I haven't seen it yet, so obviously I don't have the most informed perspective on Godard. Hopefully I'll watch it soon, and then I can let you know what I think.
I made it all the way through, but it felt much longer than 80 minutes to me. I didn't dislike it, exactly; I could see what Godard was getting at, which was intriguing intellectually, but not really satisfying in the form which Godard presentd onscreen.This bothered me more in Pierrot le Fou, which felt like a private joke he was enjoying at the expense of the audience. In general the Godard films I've liked best have been the ones with more structured, classical storytelling, like My Life to Live and Contempt, but I'm still hoping to get into his more cerebral, deconstructed films.
I dig your favorite films list too- it's nice to see less expected choices like "Three Women" and "Underground" that don't pop up on lists like the AFI Top 100.
When I get really into a book I don't mind how long it takes to finish it, but otherwise most of my really long reading sessions have been out of necessity as a student
The book tends to do that to people- I failed twice to get through it before reading it over the course of an undemanding summer job. When I raved about Midnight's Children to one of my college English professors, she remarked that she'd always wanted to read the book but with kids to care of couldn't really give over a whole evening to it. I think that's true you can't read books like that in small increments on commutes or lunch hours but need to give over a weekend or something (or in Gravity's Rainbow's case, a series of weekends) to finishing them.
Oops, never mind about the last query. I just glanced at your page and realized you'd already posted a list. Good to see Nabokov so high; I haven't crossed Lolita off my list yet, but I loved Pale Fire, and I've been working on Ada for the better part of this year. Interesting to see Updike on your list; I know he was a prolific novelist, but I mostly know his articles and reviews. What do you get from the Rabbit novels?
Off the top of my head...Gravity's Rainbow, One Hundred Years of Solitude, L.A. Confidential, The Chill (by Ross Macdonald), Midnight's Children, The Savage Detectives, Alice in Wonderland, Blood Meridian, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay. What are yours?
I'd loved to see Barry Lyndon so high on your list. Looking at the comments to this thread, I wanted to put in my two cents about O'Neal's performance. He's definitely one of the least impressive things about the movie, but I think Kubrick knew that; Barry's a character without much substance, and O'Neal conveys that perfectly, perhaps unknowingly, with his stiff, pretty-boy performance. He's like the astronaut at the end of 2001, someone at the mercy of more powerful forces.
Yeah, I'm a big Hartley fan, though I only got into his films this summer. Fay Grim was the first I saw, and I enjoyed it a lot, especially Parker Posey's performance, but I can't say I was a big fan of it. I guess the whole spy-movie format seemed outside of Hartley's strengths to me.
Unbelievable Truth is very hard to find, though I'd love to see it sometime, and Simple Men is superb. Between Henry Fool, which has an epic quality, and Trust, which is beautiful but also painful to watch, the film has a kind of tranquility which I really enjoy.
I like your choice of The Quiet Earth as the best movie for 1985, and your incorporation of genre movies as a whole, rather than just the standard Oscar winners and official classics.
He's had a rocky if not disastrous career thus far, but on the plus side he seems to be gradually gathering a good deal of momentum and attention. He certainly makes for a fascinating interview.
I was staying with family in England and caught it on late night TV. It was a real treat; not a great movie, but definitely a fun piece of cyberpunk, and definitely a good argument for giving Richard Stanley a good budget to make what he wants. On the plus side, Stanley has said that Subversive Cinema, which released 'Dust Devil,' wants to do a revamp of 'Hardware' as well.
I loved it! I was frustrated by the book as often as I enjoyed it, but in the end it seemed to all come together for me. I really feel like it changed my perspective on a lot of things.
I haven't seen it yet, so obviously I don't have the most informed perspective on Godard. Hopefully I'll watch it soon, and then I can let you know what I think.
I made it all the way through, but it felt much longer than 80 minutes to me. I didn't dislike it, exactly; I could see what Godard was getting at, which was intriguing intellectually, but not really satisfying in the form which Godard presentd onscreen.This bothered me more in Pierrot le Fou, which felt like a private joke he was enjoying at the expense of the audience. In general the Godard films I've liked best have been the ones with more structured, classical storytelling, like My Life to Live and Contempt, but I'm still hoping to get into his more cerebral, deconstructed films.
I dig your favorite films list too- it's nice to see less expected choices like "Three Women" and "Underground" that don't pop up on lists like the AFI Top 100.
When I get really into a book I don't mind how long it takes to finish it, but otherwise most of my really long reading sessions have been out of necessity as a student
The book tends to do that to people- I failed twice to get through it before reading it over the course of an undemanding summer job. When I raved about Midnight's Children to one of my college English professors, she remarked that she'd always wanted to read the book but with kids to care of couldn't really give over a whole evening to it. I think that's true you can't read books like that in small increments on commutes or lunch hours but need to give over a weekend or something (or in Gravity's Rainbow's case, a series of weekends) to finishing them.
I loved seeing The Pirate here.
Oops, never mind about the last query. I just glanced at your page and realized you'd already posted a list. Good to see Nabokov so high; I haven't crossed Lolita off my list yet, but I loved Pale Fire, and I've been working on Ada for the better part of this year. Interesting to see Updike on your list; I know he was a prolific novelist, but I mostly know his articles and reviews. What do you get from the Rabbit novels?
Off the top of my head...Gravity's Rainbow, One Hundred Years of Solitude, L.A. Confidential, The Chill (by Ross Macdonald), Midnight's Children, The Savage Detectives, Alice in Wonderland, Blood Meridian, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay. What are yours?
I'd loved to see Barry Lyndon so high on your list. Looking at the comments to this thread, I wanted to put in my two cents about O'Neal's performance. He's definitely one of the least impressive things about the movie, but I think Kubrick knew that; Barry's a character without much substance, and O'Neal conveys that perfectly, perhaps unknowingly, with his stiff, pretty-boy performance. He's like the astronaut at the end of 2001, someone at the mercy of more powerful forces.
Yeah, I'm a big Hartley fan, though I only got into his films this summer. Fay Grim was the first I saw, and I enjoyed it a lot, especially Parker Posey's performance, but I can't say I was a big fan of it. I guess the whole spy-movie format seemed outside of Hartley's strengths to me.
Unbelievable Truth is very hard to find, though I'd love to see it sometime, and Simple Men is superb. Between Henry Fool, which has an epic quality, and Trust, which is beautiful but also painful to watch, the film has a kind of tranquility which I really enjoy.
I like your choice of The Quiet Earth as the best movie for 1985, and your incorporation of genre movies as a whole, rather than just the standard Oscar winners and official classics.
He's had a rocky if not disastrous career thus far, but on the plus side he seems to be gradually gathering a good deal of momentum and attention. He certainly makes for a fascinating interview.
I was staying with family in England and caught it on late night TV. It was a real treat; not a great movie, but definitely a fun piece of cyberpunk, and definitely a good argument for giving Richard Stanley a good budget to make what he wants. On the plus side, Stanley has said that Subversive Cinema, which released 'Dust Devil,' wants to do a revamp of 'Hardware' as well.
I loved it! I was frustrated by the book as often as I enjoyed it, but in the end it seemed to all come together for me. I really feel like it changed my perspective on a lot of things.
Good thought. I saw "Shane" a few years ago and wasnn't particularly impressed by it, but I do recall being impressed by Palance.
That's good to hear. I'm hoping to see it over Thanksgiving Break.