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Devon Malcolm's Foreign Film Ponce-A-Rama


Devon Malcolm

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Corpus Christi (Prime rental)

We got two extraordinary films about questionable clergymen last year, and Corpus Christi is just about the best of them both. It leaves behind First Reformed's occasional showing off for something more grounded and realistic. Absolutely superb.

As the Gods Will (pirate)

As usual, an absolute lottery what you get with Takashi Miike. This starts of amusingly nuts but gets boring after an hour, and an hour later I simply didn't care.

April and the Extraordinary World (pirate)

Super little French steampunk animation. France have done some great animated stuff over the last decade and while this isn't quite as good as My Life as a Courgette or I Lost My Body, it's really enjoyable all the way through if a little bit crammed with ideas.

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As The Gods Will's an odd one, I think that was near the start of his more mainstream phase where he's directing adaptations of manga.

I just watched one of his latest films, First Love, and thinking it was him going back to edgy Yakuza roots it quickly turns in to a stupidly funny farce. He's managed to turn a very 00's Miike movie in to a comedy and it works well.

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Mubi recently added Festen, the most hilarious feel-bad film of all time. Has anyone seen Vinterberg's Another Round yet? I was forlornly hoping to see it at the cinema but that isn't happening any time soon so I might have to dive in online.

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Cure (1997 - Mubi)

How did this film get lumped in to that group of Japanese horrors like The Ring and Ju-On? It's a very slow, mesmerising look at the Japanese psyche and the suppression of thoughts and desires and as much a "horror" as Żuławski's Possession was. My attention wavered a little at times as it really is molasses like but I'm glad I watched it.

 

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39 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Cure (1997 - Mubi)

How did this film get lumped in to that group of Japanese horrors like The Ring and Ju-On? It's a very slow, mesmerising look at the Japanese psyche and the suppression of thoughts and desires and as much a "horror" as Żuławski's Possession was. My attention wavered a little at times as it really is molasses like but I'm glad I watched it.

 

This was one of the best films I saw for the first time last year. There's almost nobody around better than Kiyoshi Kurosawa when he's at his best.

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On 1/2/2021 at 9:21 PM, Devon Malcolm said:

Mubi recently added Festen, the most hilarious feel-bad film of all time. 

Don't know what it says about me, but I absolutely adore that film. It's so viscerally good. That was the first Dogma 95 film I saw and was spoiled, as there weren't any others nearly as good. 

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Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

I mean, I wouldn't personally ever recommend a three and a half hour Belgian film about a woman peeling spuds to anyone. But if I thought it was an absolute masterpiece, as someone who starts to get twitchy if anything is over 90 minutes, then it says a lot I think.

Custody (Prime rental)

Really haunting and brilliantly done psychological drama about the aftermath of a child custody hearing. So many great and subtle moments in this, would make a great companion piece to A Separation which, as a side issue, is one of the greatest films ever made.

Edited by Devon Malcolm
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Went full Film Nonce and watched a couple of French classics.

I've never been a fan of musicals, but I decided to give The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg a shot, Every single line of dialogue is sung and while I found this to be a tad overbearing during the first half, they had me completely pulled in for the heart-wrenching final scene. It's been nearly two days since I watched it and it's still on my mind, with the beautiful melodies composed by Michel Legrand stuck in my head. One of the songs here is also used during that episode of Futurama with Fry's dog, so that gave the music even more of an emotional punch. The visuals were also beautiful, with the colours popping off the screen. 

If you want to imagine what it would of looked like if Wes Anderson directed a Charlie Chaplin movie, then look no further than Mon Oncle. Jacques Tati directs and stars in this one, once again playing M. Hulot, a loveable yet clumsy buffoon. Mr. Bean is said to be partially based on M. Hulot and you can see why. The sound design of this is brilliant and it added a lot to the gags. The biggest issue I have with this is it's runtime. Certain scenes seem to drag on and I'm sure I would of loved this a lot more if they trimmed half an hour from it's 2 hour run time. 

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On 1/6/2021 at 6:11 PM, Merzbow said:

Cure (1997 - Mubi)

How did this film get lumped in to that group of Japanese horrors like The Ring and Ju-On? It's a very slow, mesmerising look at the Japanese psyche and the suppression of thoughts and desires and as much a "horror" as Żuławski's Possession was. My attention wavered a little at times as it really is molasses like but I'm glad I watched it.

 

Late to the party but i bloody loved Cure. 

The closest I think Kiyoshi Kurosawa ever came to standard J-horror was probably Pulse which I also bloody loved.

I think he also directed a slasher movie.

He loves his slow burns. 

Which reminds me I watched Occult a while back which is a weird and at times unnerving found footage movie and Kurosawa actually has a role in it.

Not sure if I would call it good but it definitely freaked me out at times, should be noted though that I have a very low tolerance when it comes to found footage moves. 

 

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2 hours ago, ThumpSquids said:

Apologies if it’s already been mentioned, but I’ve just slid through A Town Called Panic, which is a gorgeous French stop-motion slice of anarchy. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. Would recommend! 

I've never watched the movie, but have recently been revisiting the series through what few episodes made it on to YouTube. It's brilliant.

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Can confirm A Town Called Panic is absolutely brilliant. And only 75 minutes long so there's no excuse not to watch it. France have been lowkey making the best and most interesting animated films in the world for over a decade now.

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15 hours ago, ThumpSquids said:

Apologies if it’s already been mentioned, but I’ve just slid through A Town Called Panic, which is a gorgeous French stop-motion slice of anarchy. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. Would recommend! 

Sounds good, but I'll probably just watch it normally.

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Big Deal on Madonna Street (ok.ru)

Looked for this for years and it finally popped up with English subs on ok.ru. Well worth the wait too, thoroughly good fun and superbly acted crime comedy with a superb ending. And Claudia Cardinale in her breakthrough role.

Black Coal, Thin Ice

Diao Yinan's The Wild Goose Lake was one of the best films of last year and this, his previous crime thriller, is also superb - maybe even slightly better. China is suddenly coming out with a raft of noirs (Ash is Purest White is brilliant too) and long may it continue.

Revolver (Prime)

Might be of interest to @Scott Malbranque who I know loves a polizioteschi, and anybody who's an Oliver Reed fan. Ollie gets dragged halfway round Italy in pursuit of his kidnapped wife, goes predictably mad, and it's as enjoyable as that sounds.

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