Movie Recommendations
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Two more Soviet ww2 movies; one being fairly well known, the second one less so. First, Idi i smotri / Come and see is disgusting, perverted, surreal, shocking and torturous movie that made me physically sick. I don´t wish to describe it here as everyone knows what it is about and even if I wanted to, it can be summed by word madness.
Second one is Voskhozhdenie / the Ascent, a movie about Soviet partisans. It is not very "war" war movie; there are hardly any shots fired throughout the film. Instead, it focuses on its two protagonists - officer Sotnikov and private Rybak, with the former being originally teacher and a man of ideals and principles, as opposed to the second who is a soldier living by end justifies the means. The movie basically works by pitting their two worldviews against each other while fighting and while in captivity and of course by having them living in occupied Belarussia with all its twisted rules and unimaginable possibilities and events. Protagonists are beautifully acted. Funny fact: the movie was directed by a wife of the director of Come and See.
Second one is Voskhozhdenie / the Ascent, a movie about Soviet partisans. It is not very "war" war movie; there are hardly any shots fired throughout the film. Instead, it focuses on its two protagonists - officer Sotnikov and private Rybak, with the former being originally teacher and a man of ideals and principles, as opposed to the second who is a soldier living by end justifies the means. The movie basically works by pitting their two worldviews against each other while fighting and while in captivity and of course by having them living in occupied Belarussia with all its twisted rules and unimaginable possibilities and events. Protagonists are beautifully acted. Funny fact: the movie was directed by a wife of the director of Come and See.
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Just watched Zulu. Orlando Bloom's acting is quite good, and Whitaker is badass as usual. The story is good and entertaining but quite dark and depressing. A good thriller anyway!
Just watch the one with Stanley Baker and Michael Caine.
BenKenobi said:
What follows is a pretty long consideration on the movie. I suggest to see it before reading, but there's really nothing to be spoiled in my opinion.
I've recently read a book about the massacre of Marzabotto (Monte Sole), probably the worst committed by the Nazis in Western Europe during WW2. The population of a large mountain area was massacred to scatter the local partisan formation minimizing the losses by elements of the 16th Waffen SS division. While the book offers a scientific, historical and unbiased research, it also contains the memories of those who survived. There's this thing that struck me. Living through such atrocities is such a traumatic experience that often the survivor feels unable to share or describe it, like if one couldn't convey the horror of what he went through in words. Several survivors had their memory create false memories. Grotesque images such as impaled children or sadistically killed civilians or consolatory ones, such as good massacrers showing mercy, were reported by single witnesses without being reported by anybody else as some kind of symbols their brains unconsciously create to help them describing what they went through. A similar example, from another massacre, at Sant'Anna di Stazzema, committed by the same SS a couple of months before: a witness remembers the germans laughing and a megaphone playing while the machine-gunned civilians, dead or alive, were burned in the town's square, another, who was there with him, had seen the megaphone, but haven't heard the music. Others doesn't mention the gramophone at all.
In Idi I Smotri/Come and See there are many strange and grotesque images, such as a woman dressed is SS uniform eating a lobster during the massacre scene, the SS commander having a lemur on his shoulder (even if it said the Oskar Dirlewanger, to which the character was probably based on, actually had a monkey pet); then there's the germans playing music, laughing, drinking and raping like in a crazy, nonsense circus. It is really that kind of symbolic memories I wrote above brought on images. That's another reason why I think that Idi I Smotri/Come and See is truly the best movie on war ever made (and one of my personal favourites), as it is the only one that features not only a visual, but also a deep, deep psychological reconstruction of what the atrocities of World War II felt like. There are tons of things I could say on that movie, but I would probably end up being much too much redundant. I've read many comments of people dismissing the movie as soviet propaganda, but considering what happened in the anti-partisan warfare in Italy (so, in western Europe), I can only dare to imagine what may have happened in the same circumstances to the eastern "untermenschen".
In Idi I Smotri/Come and See there are many strange and grotesque images, such as a woman dressed is SS uniform eating a lobster during the massacre scene, the SS commander having a lemur on his shoulder (even if it said the Oskar Dirlewanger, to which the character was probably based on, actually had a monkey pet); then there's the germans playing music, laughing, drinking and raping like in a crazy, nonsense circus. It is really that kind of symbolic memories I wrote above brought on images. That's another reason why I think that Idi I Smotri/Come and See is truly the best movie on war ever made (and one of my personal favourites), as it is the only one that features not only a visual, but also a deep, deep psychological reconstruction of what the atrocities of World War II felt like. There are tons of things I could say on that movie, but I would probably end up being much too much redundant. I've read many comments of people dismissing the movie as soviet propaganda, but considering what happened in the anti-partisan warfare in Italy (so, in western Europe), I can only dare to imagine what may have happened in the same circumstances to the eastern "untermenschen".
Anyway, since I've mentioned the episode, tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the four days massacre of Monte Sole. There's this movie, I don't know how much avaible abroad, L'Uomo che verrà / The Man the Will Come, that also features the episode. It's a movie about the lives of the mountaneers of the area during World War II, so we only get the point of view of the inhabitants of those rural areas. It's a surprisingly beautiful movie, missing the usual italian melodramatic feel (if not during a couple of episodes) and much cliches. It is also fanatically accurate in its historical reconstruction: in the visuals (costumes and places), in the characters' personalities, in the historical single episodes (almost evering is shown of the massacre was actually witnessed by survivors) to the point that all the actors were forced to speak the local dialect and subtitles were needed for italian public as well.
The trailers are sadly misleading (it is absolutely not an action movie and war scenes are also pretty concentrated), anyway I suggest to check the movie out.
Pierce Brosnan is still quite handsome and oozes charm in The November Man. The younger fella isn't half-bad either. The plot is exciting enough, though fairly stereotypical and not completely without surprises. Action is good and luckily they aren't even trying to sell Brosnan as a martial arts master - he only has couple of hand-to-hand bits and they are very short. It was nice to see Olga Kurylenko have a bigger role than just a pretty prop, though of course she has to play a prostitute at one point in the film. So while it's fairly typical Hollywood espionage/action stuff, it's very well made and quite entertaining.
Good to know, I was considering whether or not to watch it recently (Bond without the Bond and a bit more of an edge to it was my impression of it) and now I think I'll give it a shot.
I own the film and have seen it quite a few times - it honestly never fails to make me depressed for the day. Absolutely brilliant film and I admire that a lot of the gore is off-screen. It's not going for pure shock value, but it is haunting and surreal. I have to say the performance by the main actor, Aleksei Kravchenko, has to be one of the best child performances on film.BenKenobi said:
Can anyone recommend movies set in the 17th century? I've watched most of the common ones that people might think of (Cromwell, Three Musketeers, Four Musketeers, etc.) so I'm looking for some more unknown ones that can still easily be found.
English Civil Wars and 30 Years War would be preferable, but basically anything in the 17th century, even the New World or Caribbean piracy would be most welcome.
English Civil Wars and 30 Years War would be preferable, but basically anything in the 17th century, even the New World or Caribbean piracy would be most welcome.
The Last Valley?
Captured Joe said:
I have seen that one, but it's been a very long time. I guess it's time to watch it again. Thanks.
I second the Last Valley, it's very good.
Also, it seems the time for requests, because I want to ask if you have any good Medieval movies to suggest to me. I have see many blockbuster-ish and others, but I'd like to hear some suggestions. From years 300-1500AD, anything. Thank you!
Also, it seems the time for requests, because I want to ask if you have any good Medieval movies to suggest to me. I have see many blockbuster-ish and others, but I'd like to hear some suggestions. From years 300-1500AD, anything. Thank you!
Antonis said:
Have you seen 1066: The Battle for Middle Earth?
"Tristram Shandy" or "A Cock and Bull Story" is a really odd but great film,
based on a book I haven't read, but apparently it's 'unfilmable'.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423409/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_14
based on a book I haven't read, but apparently it's 'unfilmable'.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423409/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_14
22 Jump Street. It's funny but not quite as funny as 21 Jump Street. Tatum is still hot, there's that. No depth but a good brainless popcorn flick. You could also play bingo with all American college stereotypes/cliches. Peter Stormare is great as the bad guy.
Sin City 2. Just as artsy-fartsy as the original. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Mickey Rourke do very good jobs with their characters. Jessica Alba tries to bring more depth into her character but that segment doesn't really work. It's obvious that Miller wrote that story only recently, for the movie, as it lacks the oomph of the other, older stories. Eva Green really hams it up as the classic Femme Fatale. Like, really really really hams it. I bet she had so much fun when filming. Action sequences are ****, so don't go see it as an action film, or you'll be heavily disappointed. But the cinematography is excellent, with the splash of colour here and there, the play between light and dark, and so on.
Sin City 2. Just as artsy-fartsy as the original. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Mickey Rourke do very good jobs with their characters. Jessica Alba tries to bring more depth into her character but that segment doesn't really work. It's obvious that Miller wrote that story only recently, for the movie, as it lacks the oomph of the other, older stories. Eva Green really hams it up as the classic Femme Fatale. Like, really really really hams it. I bet she had so much fun when filming. Action sequences are ****, so don't go see it as an action film, or you'll be heavily disappointed. But the cinematography is excellent, with the splash of colour here and there, the play between light and dark, and so on.
Arvenski said:
Watched that as well. After doing some google searches, I'm beginning to believe that I've watched pretty much every movie set in the 17th century that is readily available. Guess I'll just have to re-watch things.
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