[Rob Instigator]

I felt like spraying diarrhea on all of film-making after watching Godard. Does that count?

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

Funny you should mention that as I watched that last week. Really didn't dig it all.

well it's a bit dated in that computer control of everyday life is a fact no longer in question. but around the time when this movie came out mcnamara was running the vietnam war via computer, modernist architecture had filled up the world with glass and concrete, and i see lemmy caution as the heroic last assertion of the human animal who "loves gold and women" vs. the dictator of rationality. that, or he's a capitalist agent smashing soviet-style planning. either way, it's an iconic film. and the visuals are just fucking brilliant. but yeah, after neo & the matrix, a bit long in the tooth narrative-wise.

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I think Godard was vital in challenging convention, but more as an inspiration for future directors than for the success (or otherwise) of his own films. Woody Allen being a perfect example. He may openly quote Bergman and Fellini but stylistically I'd say he's consistently owed more to Godard than to anyone else.

what you just said here is super-interesting to me because on the one hand i totally see it in SLEEPER-- both godard's alphaville and truffaut's farenheit 451 absolutely inform it. but elsewhere? please tell me so i know where to look.

[TheDom]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I think Godard was vital in challenging convention, but more as an inspiration for future directors than for the success (or otherwise) of his own films. Woody Allen being a perfect example. He may openly quote Bergman and Fellini but stylistically I'd say he's consistently owed more to Godard than to anyone else.

I totally agree. Godard is always a critic first, artist second in my eyes. It took other directors to pull emotional qualities out of some of his rule breaking, instead of just the theory behind it.

[TheDom]

Originally Posted by evollove

Or director wannabes.

In my early 20s especially, I'd watch a Godard film and think, "Damn. I wanna get a camera and a bunch of people and make something up more or less on the fly. If he can do it, I can do it. What could go wrong?"

Seriously, has anyone else ever felt the urge to make a film after watching one of his?

Yup - I even took a crack at it..... hard to make a film with just a camera

[demonrail666]

I think it's more difficult with Godard. Everyone can see what Felliniesque or Hichcockian or Bergmanesque film looks like. With Godard I'd say it's more about a quite playful attitude to things, a knowingness, an ironic and self referential playing around with genre. Not saying Godard invented any of those things but he unified them and turned them into a kind of attitude. I don't think he's ever consciously attempted to make a homage to Godard but I definitely think he absorbed that attitude. Saying that I do think Annie Hall is explicitly Godardian in its self-conscious rule-breaking, and even his crime-comedies, the way he messes around with genre, seems like a nod to the spirit at least of films like Bande a Part.

So I was probably wrong in saying stylistically, but in terms of attitude I'd say definitely.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by TheDom

I totally agree. Godard is always a critic first, artist second in my eyes. It took other directors to pull emotional qualities out of some of his rule breaking, instead of just the theory behind it.

Yeah, I have an anthology of his film criticism and I love it far more than I do any of his films. The other problem (for me) is that his turn to political dogma in the late 60s robbed him even of that quite free-wheeling spirit in his early films, which, while I'm still not hugely into them, I do prefer them over his later agit-prop stuff.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

Seriously, has anyone else ever felt the urge to make a film after watching one of his?

never. but john waters or the kuchar bros yes.

now for easier inspiration look to rohmer. fixed camera on a tripod and a tape recorder, blam, you've made a movie.

[TheDom]

12 Angry Men - Aw man I always forget about Lumet but he is always a god damn knock out. Classic film and good for a night with the lady along with some dinner. But damn that direction by Lumet is absolutely riveting.

Last Year at Marienbad - Aesthetically masterful and the criterion is so so so so gorgeous. But as for everything else... smoke and mirrors. This was my second attempt at watching it, the first time it put me to sleep. Great atmosphere but nothing in the atmosphere. I'd love to see this in a theatre and if I spoke French. I keep going back and forth between "fuck this movie" and "a great film experience that feels like memories". Mostly fuck this movie

[evollove]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

So I was probably wrong in saying stylistically, but in terms of attitude I'd say definitely.

I agree, although those jump cuts in the underrated HUSBANDS AND WIVES feel like a nod (or a steal).

I used to think that some (but not all) of Woody's pseudo-documentary films (he's had a bunch, counting stuff like SWEET LOWDOWN) were somehow influenced by Truffaut, who also used that convention a lot, I seem to remember. Haven't watched him in years. Maybe, maybe not.

Woody's in KING LEAR, come to think of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VJP43eAnQE

Originally Posted by TheDom

Last Year at Marienbad

Ended up finishing by going in chunks over days. Great film? Sure. But you'd have to pay me a lot to give up another two hours. Sober, the price doubles.

Gimme a movie I like vs a great film any day, although I hope the two should meet now and then.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by evollove

Ended up finishing by going in chunks over days. Great film? Sure. But you'd have to pay me a lot to give up another two hours. Sober, the price doubles.

Haha, have to agree. A 'classic' but it'd take a fuck of a lot to get me to sit through it again.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

I felt like spraying diarrhea on all of film-making after watching Godard. Does that count?

rob!

is this you?

 

let's make a movie!

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Haha, have to agree. A 'classic' but it'd take a fuck of a lot to get me to sit through it again.

a pistol to the head for me

would make a great video wallpaper though, but not for staring at it the full 8 hours that it seems to last

[pepper_green]

Mike Watt once had a theory that if you were an artist or not, you either smeared it or packed that shit in as a toddler.

i'll always remember that.

[TheDom]

Glad to see I'm in good company about Marienbad then

[demonrail666]

I sometimes worry that I watch so much more pure fun films now that I'm finding it harder and harder to have the patience for the more challenging stuff that I used to be able to watch for pleasure.

[evollove]

Yes. I wonder if I've gotten less mature or just stupider as I've aged. At some point, I could've sat through anything as long as Janus or Criterion put it out.

Then again, why did I bother struggling through MARIANBRAD? I was bored. Should've just stopped and moved on. What prize did I win by finishing it?

[demonrail666]

It's bad with classic films but think about it. The most they take out of your life is 2, maximum 3 hours. And at least once you've watched one you've earned the right to comment on it. Paintings are even better. Even the most complex ones can be absorbed in a matter of minutes. It's different with novels. Who seriously now has the time to invest in something like War and Peace, or Ulysses? Imagine how much easier life would've been if Joyce had painted Ulysses instead of written it.

[Rob Instigator]

That is not exactly correct. SHITTY paintings can be absorbed in a minute. That type of shit is what is used for adverts and "decoration" because it is devoid of meaning.

Real art takes time to appreciate, evene if yuou love it at first sight. The great art of the world benefits so much from actually living with it, seeing it in different lights at different times of day, when you are in a different mood, etc.

I regularly read 1000+ page books. If people counted the wasted hours spent staring at their phone or tablet reading meaningless shit on instagram and face and snapchat they would add up to PLENTY!

People just are not taught to teach themselves anymore. even college students are fucking idiots these days.

[Rob Instigator]

I sat through all 5 hours of CHE' at the movie theatre with my mom! That was a loooong film!

[!@#$%!]

marienbad is a beautiful film--just very fucking boring

but it's beautiful to look at.

it's more of an art installation than a movie

i'd blow it up the size of a whole wall & go about my day

demonyo mentioned paintings-- well. it's like a painting that moves.

the question is how long can you sit in front of the painting and stare at it looking for a "story"

8 hours? 2 hours? 1?

same as eraserhead for me. i have fallen asleep so many times in front of it. never managed to watch it in a straight sitting. looks great though.