Random 10: Random Films for Comment - Week 14

Monty Python and the Holy Grail - I think it's exceedingly hard in Western society (especially among males) to find someone who can actually speak of this film rationally and without total bias. I know I've seen it way too often to be able to look at it at all vaguely objectively. Is my laughter to this film reflexive now, or does it remain genuine? God knows. I haven't seen it in a while anyway, but I have the movie embedded in my memory, so why bother? The director's cut sucked, by the way, not b/c they made the movie bad, but because they were the least noticeable changes a director's cut has had in a long time. On the other hand, any excuse to roll this back out into the big screens again is fine with me. I wonder, though, if MP is at risk of such cultural saturation to the point that it all sorta cancels out as humor? Or worse, if they run the risk of being so seen that they age badly (a la Mel Brooks)?

Betrayed - I think I saw this one as a kid shortly after it came out. Holly Hunter as an undercover agent who spies on suspected KKK'er Tom Beringer? And she falls in love with him and they get married. And somehow this leads to her being "betrayed"? Very confusing, at least as I'm trying to reconstruct it. Is this film an apology for white supremacist murderers and the undercover cops who love them despite all that? I dunno. I happen to have a bit of a yen for Costa Gavras myself, and I think it's a shame that he's been so sidelined in the past decades, since I don't think his work has suffered or being as co-opted as the CW would have you believe.

The Devil's Eye - I haven't seen this, but I wonder why a Bergman film from right in the middle of his prime seems to have gone unnoticed by so many (myself included).

Now, Voyager - I keep on missing this one! I must see it - as with all other Bette Davis films.

Manhattan - the photography is amazing, the drama is okay. I dunno, this one I enjoyed, but it never clicked with me as quite the masterpiece props it always gets. I enjoy it, I like it, I rate it. I don't rank it among his top, for some reason. I think I've always been more of a fan of the stuff up through Annie Hall.

The Last Days of Disco - I know it gets shit on a bit, but I need to see this, since I think I'm a Stillman fan. I say "think" because I've only seen one of his three films, so how would I know yet?

I love the Last Days Of Disco. I love it to pieces. My brother-in-law even edited it, but I loved it before I knew him.

what the hell is gunhed doign there? its liek a japanese version of captain power and the soldiers of the future. j apanese here = trashy action, papier mache props and long long taeks of people brooding expresionlessly. and it doesnt even work as camp because its all dark and dour and shit.

I like mahattan, Now,Voyager, The Holy Grail, and Betrayed too. And Tetsuo. and the Bergman one. I haven't seen the others.

Tetsuo II was very disappointing.

I like Betrayed. It stars Debra Winger, not Holly Hunter. Ebert's review is OTM in saying that Winger and White Supremacist love interest Tom Berenger are so much better than Joe Estherhaz awful screenplay. The release of the film was a big deal in the white racist community during the 80s as its ripped from the headlines plot was one of the three major films of that year to be inspired by the paramilitary robbery terrorism of Robert Matthews and his gang The Order. Costa-Gavras taut style is in full effect during a nice rain drenched squence when Berenger's farmer character has too shoot a sick horse.

Now Voyager is excruciatingly boring.

I'm still kinda confused about Betrayed. What exactly is the plotline again?

(Hunter...Winger...for some reason I always get those two confused.)