Talk about FILMS you’ve just seen!
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I would add Funny Games to your list (the US version, never seen the original). And believe it or not, some parts of Hamnet (the excrutiating pain of grief) reminded me of Haneke.
I once saw Haneke’s BENNY’S VIDEO at university. Tough one that is and had never ttthe desire to watch it again.
Haneke, for me, is somewhat the opposite of something like HAMNET. Stark and sober in portrayal (not a melodramatic touch in sight), but at the same time very raw and visceral. So I suppose the effect is the same (for some), but the means very different. I agree that FUNNY GAMES is a tough film to return to, but I have done so a couple of times nonetheless. His other films are easier to revisit. Haneke is a favourite of mine; same with his countryman Ulrich Seidl. Both of these produce films that are harrowing first-time experiences, and excellent films. But to find JUST the right mood to return to them? Trickier.
I have not seen all or even many Haneke films but they are good. BENNY was just so heavy to stomach… And his movies have few to no music I think. At least BENNY has no score at all and didn’t need any.
I was no fan of HAMNET either. I found it dull and manipulative. Having two young grandsons, I usually become very involved and emotional watching any ‘child peril ‘ movies these days, but HAMNET left me cold (even the use of the Richter piece – now bordering on parody – had my eyes rolling instead of leaking). Massively overrated film for me.
I don’t view Hamnet as being melodramatic, sentimental or American (even though it’s co-produced by Spielberg) at all!
I agree with the use of the music by Richter. Was Zhao unaware that it has been used before? That was the only flaw (in my eyes and ears).
Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. I felt the sentimentalism was spread out like a giant layer of butter on a sandwich. Took me completely out of it, and I’m generally very open to melodrama as a tool (from Sirk to Spielberg).
Yes, we couldn’t be more on opposite sides. What I saw was real pain, just like in Funny Games. And I wasn’t prepared for it!
Anyway, to the Haneke fans here, what is your favorite Haneke movie? I think mine would be Das weisse Band (The White Ribbon). To come to this conclusion, I had to watch it twice. I couldn’t believe Haneke is actually the writer. I thought the movie had to be an adaptation of a classic German novel, one that no one would dare to film.
Ooooh, very difficult. But I think I’m inclined to agree with you on this one. I think it’s DAS WEISSE BAND for me too, maybe followed by AMOUR and FUNNY GAMES. But I’ve seen them all, and I like them all. Even the much criticized LE TEMPS DE LOUP.
CACHÉ is great; love that opening shot. Almost Antonioni-ish. Maybe on a different day, it will be in the top 3 instead.
By the way, when I said I’ve seen all his films, I should specify that I haven’t seen his TV work. Was always curious about that.
Interestingly, while I like THE PIANO TEACHER quite a bit, it’s probably the film I like the LEAST of his work.
It’s the same for me. I felt La Pianiste is simply way too pessimistic. There was nothing that counterweighted it. Life isn’t like that. Then again, I only watched it once.
La Pianiste is just congenial to reading one of Jelinek’s books. Artful description of a perverted and miserable world. I saw that one, Das Weiße Band and just parts of both Funny Games versions. Somehow I was a bit underwhelmed by The White Ribbon after I was quite impressed by La Pianiste. Maybe I should watch Das Weiße Band again. I have it on DVD.
The second time I watched Das weisse Band was not as usual in the evening but in the morning when senses aren’t yet dulled down. And boy,how the movie suddenly sucked me in! It’s not so much about the things that happen in the story but rather about the thing that is brewing under the surface. But as we know, whatever you think the movie is really about, Haneke will always say that you’re wrong.
Not exactly a great movie (you have to avoid critical thinking and abandon all sense of logic), but since the topic (two young girls want to climb a thin transmitter mast of 600 meter) obviously plays with our strongest instincts, it will most likely be an experience with thrills and chills.
Saw it last year I think. As someone who has no head for heights it really worked for me. And the twist at the end was nice altough you got a little suspicious in the middle already.
I saw it, too. But I hardly remember it. As other movies of this kind it has a tipping point when it goes too much over the top, so that it becomes so unrealistic, that you don’t care anymore, because it becomes too unreal to still relate.
During Easter, I saw a lot of my comfort movies before bed time, but again — not something I need to report on. These films are being used very ‘utilitarian’. I’ll chime in if someone else mentions these films instead, at some point.
I also snuck in a re-viewing of ELEVATION, which was a decent creature feature from a couple of years ago. It held up pretty well on second viewing. One of those high concept films (post-apocalyptic film about monsters who can’t go beyond 8000 feet) that is so reliant on the acts.
And the horror film DO NOT ENTER, which I had heard good things about. Well, I don’t know why, because it was a fairly middle-of-the-road genre affair about a group of stupid youngsters doing stupid things in a haunted hotel (but kudos for the eerie monster).
Yesterday, I finally got around to Jafar Panahi’s IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT. Well, for once, “this WAS a film” (unlike those experiments he did in jail), and there’s a lot of intensity in the dialogue (it’s a dialogue thriller, basically, that gets a little too shouty on occasion), but not that impressed with the rather mundane visuals. It’s a far cry from the director’s early films, like CIRCLE and THE WHITE BALLOON.
And now, I just came back from Kristoffer Borgli’s latest film, THE DRAMA – with Robert Pattinson and Zendaya as couple about to be wed until a secret is revealed. It’s labeled a ‘romantic comedy’, which is the least interesting genre of all. Thankfuly, Borgli does his usual twist on things, although most of the surrealism from DREAM SCENARIO and SYK PIKE is gone. Like Panahi above, it’s mostly a dialogue thriller (and a little nod to Thomas Vinterberg’s “Dogme” classic FESTEN). But kudos for inventive, musical editing that oscillates between past, present and imagined realities. Daniel Pemberton’s score was basically the plucking of random strings, and nothing to write home about.
Like it? Dislike it? I didn’t care that much for it myself. I see I gave it 2 out of 5 at MUBI, but don’t remember a lot, to be honest.
I switched off The Monkey after a minute or five. It felt like the movie was going to be cliché after cliché and I wasn’t in the mood for that. I am in no obligation to watch movies to the end. Believe it or not but I recently did the same with Sinners, the movie the internet went crazy over. It’s like with music, you don’t need to listen all the way to the end to know whether you like it or not.
Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006)
My own first encounter with “James Bond” was that amphibious Lotus Esprit in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. That car, which I remember seeing in television spots, was the sort of thing convinces an eight‑year‑old that adulthood will be a long parade of gadgets and tuxedos. I didn’t even see the movie back then, probably too young, and only saw it later. The first Bond movie I ever saw was FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.
Bond himself was never an obsession for me; he was simply part of the cultural wallpaper. I did not seek him out so much as absorb him through cultural popularity. When the Bond movies came to TV in the 1980s, I watched most of them, and by now, have actually seen them all. Bond was a casual thing for me.
Then 2006 arrived, and with it Daniel Craig, a casting choice that, at the time, caused certain corners of the internet to behave as though EON had personally insulted their families. But EON did something genuinely bold: they didn’t just change the actor, they detonated the entire template. CASIONO ROYALE isn’t a tweak or a course correction like all previous new Bond actors were, CASINO ROYALE is a full-scale reboot, wipe the board and start anew. It is the Bond equivalent of Nolan’s BATMAN BEGINS, only with fewer bats and even more bruises.
Gone are the invisible cars and the physics-defying set pieces from the Brosnan era, gone are the endless one-night stands. In their place: stunts that look as though they were performed by actual humans, fights that leave both participants visibly regretting their life choices, affairs that come with a sense of danger, and a Double‑0 program that feels like a real, and faintly alarming, arm of British intelligence. The film grounds “James Bond” not by stripping away the fantasy, but by giving the fantasy weight by firmly rooting it in reality. Suddenly, there’s something at stake beyond the next martini, suddenly, Bond’s seemingly inexhaustive expense account makes sense and becomes an essential plot device, the stakes high, money can get lost and people get hurt.
CASINO ROYALE was a fresh look at what Bond is and could be. The result: for my money CASINO ROYALE is the best James Bond movie ever made. It’s sharp, muscular, emotionally coherent, and confident enough to reinvent a decades‑old icon without flinching. It’s got enough nods and winks to “classic” Bond, but shows James Bond as a growing character “still in the making”. (Great moment: Bond orders a Vodka Martini, and when asked “Shaken or stirred” replies: “Do I look like I give a damn?”)
For a franchise that once sold me on an underwater Lotus, that’s quite an evolution (even if the child in me still wants that underwater Lotus).
CASINO ROYALE brought back Bond with a vengeance and kicked off a set of movies with an actual continuity and story arc, something Bond previously just did not have.I re-watched this yesterday in 4K/UHD (the second time I’ve seen it, and I appreciate the movie even more now since the first time I saw it years ago), and found it quite impressive. As I said: best Bond movie ever.
Yes, CASINO ROYALE really took the new JASON BOURNE influence to heart. Which is only a good thing, as far as I’m concerned. As we’ve touched on elsewhere, I was even less interested than you in Bond as a kid (it barely existed in the outer limits of my vision); the whole camp factor alienated me even back then. But I absolutely loved JASON BOURNE from day one, and was pleased when Bond looked to that.
Not exactly a great movie (you have to avoid critical thinking and abandon all sense of logic), but since the topic (two young girls want to climb a thin transmitter mast of 600 meter) obviously plays with our strongest instincts, it will most likely be an experience with thrills and chills.
I think FALL is a typical WYSIWYG horror movie; it delivers on its premise, no more, no less. It’s basically an invitation to live out your fear of heights from the comfort of your couch. FALL is a horror movie where the monster is simply “height”, and as such, it is quite effectively made. I found myself clutching the armrest more than once. (I think it probably helps to see the movie on a big screen that “lets you be there” for it to be most effective.)
I switched off The Monkey after a minute or five.
Wow, that’s fast, that barely gets you past the distributor logos nowadays.
I have some films like that. Powerful experiences that I have no desire to return to. SCHINDLER’S LIST, IRRÉVERSIBLE, VIVARIUM etc.
I’ve seen SCHINDLER’S LIST several times, and I think it is a great movie, I’d always re-watch it, but indeed, I’m not nuts about re-visiting IRRÉVERSIBLE. VIVARIUM I have on my watchlist, though not yet seen. Not sure, is it a good movie? It seems more a bit like a Twilight Zone episode stretched to full feature length, but maybe I give it a shot.
I would add Funny Games to your list (the US version, never seen the original).
They are more or less the same.
It’s also not a movie I feel like ever watching again.
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