Secret Ninja Movie Club (aka what have you watched lately)

bright maroon · Post by **bright maroon** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:21 am

Parson wrote:more fucked up than jodorowsky

very off beat film - I liked it alot..in fact, that was one of the most interesting and cerebral films I think I have ever seen..

..and right on time with some of the psychological issues I'm having.

..like when the mexican actor guy is cornered and crying and the girl is insane and cracking the eggs on her head...navigate that..not wanting to do something and yet not able to resist..is the danger.

all the infantile cult members..fuck them..trying to celebrate shit..

amazingly sarcastic that film..I could go on for hours about that one.

There is one thing I don't get..maybe someone can shed light..what was with the bathing in chocolate scene towards the end? That seemed out of place and with no purpose - just gratuitous and out of line for what her character was experiencing..?

parson · Post by **parson** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:39 am

that image of Dolls is a bit out of place following your Sweet Movie assessment. i wish i could help you out with interpretation more but its been about 5 years since i've seen it and i don't remember it well enough to offer any kind of explanation

dj cal cutta · Post by **dj cal cutta** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:23 pm

bright maroon wrote: There is one thing I don't get..maybe someone can shed light..what was with the bathing in chocolate scene towards the end? That seemed out of place and with no purpose - just gratuitous and out of line for what her character was experiencing..?

I read this scene as a moment of transcendence for the woman. After an entire film of being subjected to horrors, mistreatment and the fantasies of others(save for the scene on the Eiffel Tower, which itself becomes a horror), this is the moment where she is acting entirely alone, without the influence or force of another individual.

The irony to all this is Makavejev has said that she was quite uncomfortable shooting this scene(as the chocolate mixture she was bathing in was uncomfortable for her genetalia, according to him), but didn't seem to mind too many other moments she was in the film.

oddfellow · Post by **oddfellow** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:26 pm

Saw three films yesterday...

O Brother Where Art Thou - Absolute quality.

There Will Be Blood - Mesmarising film. Daniel Day Lewis's tash is spot on and his acting isnt that bad either.

Taking Liberties - Simply made me angry, but its good to know what we're up against.

bright maroon · Post by **bright maroon** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:06 pm

Parson wrote:that image of Dolls is a bit out of place following your Sweet Movie assessment.

Well in Dolls the guy has had a long, serious relationship with the girl..and then, his parents force him to marry his bosses' daughter...and the original girl cracks..has a breakdown..and since he honestly loves her, feels responsible to some degree for cracking her head and defies everyone to go with her instead, sacrificing his career etc. relationship with his parents - in an attempt to rehabilitate her crushed psyche...

In the Sweet Movie..the virgin cracks after being humiliated and peverted and then finally subjected to her own insanity..and then everyone elses insanity...but unlike Dolls she has no hero to look after her (because they all proved to be false)..she is left to establish her own will (after being thrown out in the garbage), amongst people acting ridiculous..and spends much of her time cowering in a corner.

Then all of a sudden we see her cheesecaking in chocolate for the camera, which doesn't make sense to me.

You don't get to cheesecake from being destroyed.
You get to cheesecake when you decide to exploit the stupid freaks, which is out of character for a person having been subject to exploitation. That's like her deciding to join them, which she would not do..

If fact, We see her reject them when the guy pulls the cow toungue out of his fly and then starts cutting it with a cleaver..she takes it and throws it..and then finds his real penis and caresses it on her cheek..granted she is insane at that point, but she is still exhibiting some sense of....adoration..? as apposed to love as exagerated sensationalism..bastardizartion.

dj cal cutta · Post by **dj cal cutta** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:20 pm

bright maroon wrote: You don't get to cheesecake from being destroyed.
You get to cheesecake when you decide to exploit the stupid freaks, which is out of character for a person having been subject to exploitation. That's like her deciding to join them, which she would not do..

I wouldn't call this an objective expectation. Many people react in many different ways to cruelty and mistreatment. As I mentioned in my previous post, I saw this as a moment of transcendence where she finally gets to express desire, unhindered and alone.

bright maroon · Post by **bright maroon** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:36 pm

DJ Cal Cutta wrote: I wouldn't call this an objective expectation. Many people react in many different ways to cruelty and mistreatment. As I mentioned in my previous post, I saw this as a moment of transcendence where she finally gets to express desire, unhindered and alone.

Yeah - After she watched a bunch of people frolic in shit..I don't see her character acheiving transcendence in that manner.

For money maybe..and not until alot of time had passed..

That would be a broken woman accepting that her economic fate lies in the hands of a culture of sex freaks..

Not transcendence at all.

I hope that you do not perceive this as arguing, because I am just tossing this around with you for a minute...for truth, maybe. This sentence is an apology for any perceived animosity.

dj cal cutta · Post by **dj cal cutta** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:49 pm

No animosity at all

I'm not saying that watching the Aktionists were, alone, a cause for transcendence, I do think it helps, though. Throughout the film, there is only one moment before the climax(I use that word literally and figuratively) where Miss Canada seems at all happy(the Eiffel Tower scene), and even this is violently(and with much humiliation) taken away from her. She isn't portrayed as happy, quite far from it, she's either horrified, exhausted, humiliated, scared, unhappy, you name it...except for the end, this is the only moment where she doesn't express any inhibitions(or regrets for lack of inhibition, which I'd argue is shown in the Eiffel Tower scene).

I'd maybe even go so far as this idea: Maybe the final scene of Miss Canada frolicking in chocolate is her acceptance of "sweet", almost a cue that she's about to take the same path as Capt. Anna Planeta(because, as it's shown throughout the film, Miss Canada is somehow removed from every situation she's in, and Capt. Anna Planeta starts the film as someone already acceptance of sweets, and already exiled from everything, banished to her boat of horrors).

Sorry, that was a bit rambling...

parson · Post by **parson** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:04 pm

haha that movie is bananas. i didn't try hard at all to understand it. i was more like oh shit they're not gonna go there. oh fuck. oh shit. oh no they're not gonna. yep. eww.

bright maroon · Post by **bright maroon** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:04 pm

Anna Planeta is a Black Widow though..a vampire..a sexual sociopath.

..Even though in the beginning we like her alot because she appears to be a strong woman, balanced and in control..interesting even..

She molested children and killed them. As with all of her men..or social revolutions as the directer touts. Sugar coated or not..she was murdering.

I would hate for the virgin to be left to that roll.

This now reminds me of the film The Sheltering Sky - Where the girl starts off running her mouth about all things and tries to carry a ton of baggage across the Sahara - and in the end she returns to the original bar with nothing but a head of short cropped hair, speaks nothing and moves as though she no longer has an identity..that was a very dark transformation.

Parsons' your alright - now watch again...and bring it.

dj cal cutta · Post by **dj cal cutta** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:11 pm

The cause for Anna Planeta's action(i.e. a background that could influence the life she leads) is never really shown, though, so "vampire..a sexual sociopath" bit could have been the effect of all the same kinds of treatments Miss Canada receives. I've never thought of it in this light but, frankly, it's the only real way I'm able to reconcile these two plots in this film, pretty fascinating, really.

bright maroon · Post by **bright maroon** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:31 pm

I watched the movie half way..and then put it back to the beginning because I new it was going to be a monsterous bassline of a movie..

..sugar plum fairies danced in her mind...

..all up in your mouth..

dj cal cutta · Post by **dj cal cutta** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:32 pm

I'd also highly recommend checking out the film Makavejev made before Sweet Movie, "W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism", not as extreme, not as abstract, incredibly fascinating.

dj cal cutta · Post by **dj cal cutta** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:11 pm

Last night I watched Fassbinder's "Lola"(probably my favorite Fassbinder film, something about the lighting scheme) and Fritz Lang's "Testament of Dr. Mabuse". Watched "Teorema" by Pasolini on Friday night.

parson · Post by **parson** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:12 pm

lola is awesome. def one of the best.

i've seen like 20 or so fassbinder films

other awesome ones include:
ali
maria braun
13 moons
whity
chinese roulette (what a cast!)

dj cal cutta · Post by **dj cal cutta** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:31 pm

Yeah, I love a lot of Fassbinder. It's amazing how the man could simultaneously have a master-craftsman's hand in filmmaking in some films, then in others show a volatility that most filmmakers could only dream of when they imagine "intensity"(Katzelmacher, In a Year With 13 Moons, Fox and His Friends, Berlin Alexanderplatz, etc.).

I guess, with that said, it's telling that Lola would be my favorite, as imo, it's his prettiest film in many ways. God I love that lighting scheme...(I also am a sucker for Douglas Sirk films).

parson · Post by **parson** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:33 pm

hell yeah imitation of life is one of my favorite films ever

i prefer ali to all that heaven allows tho

parson · Post by **parson** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:34 pm

thats why i'm not too into the early period fassbinder

it was around merchant of four seasons that he discovered and starting biting sirk. and thats when his movies got REAL awesome imo
sirk wasn't half as flamboyant, which is how fassbinder could make such blatant swagger-jacking work so well

dj cal cutta · Post by **dj cal cutta** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:41 pm

What did you think of The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant? I actually picked that up for my gf on a whim(she's a fashion designer), wow...that film was soul-shattering for me. It's one of his films that shows, with no small amount of clarity, how much turmoil there must have been actually working with Fassbinder. There was a story about how Chinese Roulette was filmed by Fassbinder making all cast and crew live in some very remote chateau, and then proceeded to go into some serious psychoanalysis of these people, just for added intensity on film.

It's hard not to reconcile imagining Fassbinder the person, with any of his films, and for that, I love him.

edit:

sirk wasn't half as flamboyant, which is how fassbinder could make such blatant swagger-jacking work so well

That's a good way to put it

parson · Post by **parson** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:41 pm

bright maroon wrote: Parsons' your alright - now watch again...and bring it.

i'm not trying to be grossed out right now

i've got extreme empathy and movies like this fuck with me

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