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L'avventura (1960)
People only find it boring because they don't understand.
L'avventura is Antonioni's towering achievement. This film brought a new way of making a film entirely. But, I wouldn't say this is a film for everyone to see for simple pleasure. While most cinephiles will love it to death, others will not be able to grasp everything that the film is doing. And for those who don't understand this film, it is easy to beat it down with their stupid reasons. While this film is clearly gorgeous, the way the story is told allows the film to emphasize how insanely gorgeous it is. This is easiest to notice in the beginning of the film, when they are on the boat. The story is laid out all in this sequence, but it actually wouldn't take as long as it did if another Antonioni didn't write/direct it. All the shots the progress the story are done in a short amount of time than how much time Antonioni allows us to dwell in the moment. Which, is where people find it boring. Which sounds very understandable, but not everyone realizes how literate Antonioni is just when he is moving the camera from place to place. I'm not saying that the film is meant to take place in your head by doing this, but Antonioni makes us realize how much is actually going on, even when nothing is going on. Not everyone is going to love this technique, but at the Cannes film festival it was given an award for creating a new language and for it's astonishing visuals. Which, I think is enough to say that this is an outstanding achievement no matter what people think of it. It is much like "Citizen Kane", in a way. The uneducated viewer may (not always) find it boring and doesn't care much for anything else in the film, but the more you know about film the more you come to adore the film. I'm not saying this film is equal to "Citizen Kane", but I would rank it at the level of "Citizen Kane" of Italian cinema.
Schindler's List (1993)
Spielberg's Direction Ruins Another Great Script
I'm not going to say that this film was boring and black and white is stupid because those things would be wrong. I am part of the group of people who dislike every film Spielberg got his hands on. Spielberg has a way of making the imagery mild entertaining and the story not the least bit compelling. It always has the annoyance through-out his films that just makes me think that he is doing everything wrong. An example of how much I hate his films: I thought Jurassic Park III was a masterpiece compared to Jurassic Park I.
Onto the film. This film has quite good cinematography, which is probably the only reason why I kept watching it. As far as the performance of Liam Neeson, I wasn't convinced in the least. Which confused me because he was pretty good in everything else. Also, I read that Billy Wilder wanted to direct it because he had many relatives die in the holocaust. Steven Spielberg turned him down. Now, that just angers me. One, I hate him. Two, that makes him a terrible person. Three, this could've been an even better movie than what PEOPLE think it is right now. I went into this movie with expectations of an average movie. It wasn't that I was extremely let down from what I thought was a masterpiece. I was extremely let down into thinking I was going to be watching an average film.
I don't want anyone to think I don't have the attention span or the understanding of films to understand this film. "Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler" is one of my all-time favorites. I'm not going to lie here. I did like the IDEA of the part where Oscar Schindler was going around saying that he could've saved one more life. And I think he dropped to his knees. But the acting Spielberg directed Liam Neeson to do made it worse than it should have been.
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
Just as I expected, not good.
Well, I finally saw this film. I knew even before I saw it that it was going to be a collage of Roger Waters imagery for the Album "The Wall". I knew it was going to feel forced, too. I like a a good deal of Pink Floyd. I can handle obscene and bizarre imagery and whatnot, in fact, I love it. It wasn't as extreme as I expected (it was quite mild), but I believe you can't make a good bizarre film using forced and often stupid weird things. Roger Waters was hoping David Lynch would like this film, considering "Eraserhead" is known for being one of his favorites. Well, Lynch doesn't like interpretations for films and since this entire movie is an interpretation of the album, you get the point. To sum it all up, this a stupid film that COULD ruin the album for you and this film is not complex, even if there is some hidden meaning behind it (who cares, anyway).
Lost in Translation (2003)
The Most Perfect Film I Have Seen
I would've never thought that this movie would be this good. In fact, I saw it once (paying little attention) and didn't even care for it. But, months later I decided to watch it again, just because I was in a certain mood to get lost. I don't get that mood ever. Anyway, this movie is beautiful, charming, entertaining, funny(my favourite sense of humor), moving, and has an amazing soundtrack. I don't know what else could draw me in more.
I have a wide taste in Music and Movies, so basically, if you didn't like this film, you're wrong. I know people would argue with that, but let me point out a few things. Okay, it was FAR from a mindless movie, so it isn't "stupid". There is beauty in every single shot (I mean that), so I don't see how it could bore you. Also, it is the most "Real" film I could've ever seen. Of course, I do like movies that take you into other worlds or that have a wild story to be told or anything like that, but this film is so simple. Sofia Coppola really is one of the greatest Writer/Director of all time for me. Just because she made this movie.
The Killing (1956)
Kubrick At His Absolute Finest
Without batting an eye I will refer to this as the greatest heist film, the best Kubrick film and also (My Personal Opinion) the greatest Black and White film. All of which, should say a lot about how absolutely bliss this film is.
As for Stanley Kubrick, he is in my top 5 favorite directors of all time. I find all of his films to be a genuine masterpiece, with the exception of "Full Metal Jacket", which is still outstanding. Anyway, I was breathing heavily from the second I picked up the Criterion Collection Edition of this and viewed that chilling picture of the man with the clown mask to the very end of the film.
This following sentence is a spoiler. I don't know what it is about unhappy endings, I just find that there is so much more to be explored with them compared to happy endings. This ending, is just simply perfection and possibly the most classic unhappy ending of all time. I mean, throughout the movie, just waiting for something to interfere and then just such a simple mishap leaves the entire operation in the dust.
To be honest, and I know that this is said about a lot of movies that people adore, but I couldn't think of a single flaw. Story-wise or anything. There may have been some continuity issues, but who cares about that(I didn't notice any, anyways). There is not an unnecessary scene in this and there isn't a scene that I would recall being fantastic. This film is necessary and I couldn't tell you why I've put it off all these years.