Reviews

An astonishing film in very sense. Warhol was far more zen-like than he'd ever know. In my opinion one of the most sexy films ever. It doesn't matter who's giving the blow job, once you get used to the tempo of the film you're forced to focus on the most minute details - the man's face. He deprives in order to enrich. He wants to make you work, guess - he succeeds. It's mini-maximalism an amazing. See it whenever you can. Why can't the Warhol foundation release these on video?!?!

In my mind, along with Blow Job, Warhol's greatest film. Here as in all his films he accomplishes a zen like genius: slowing down our perception in order to speed it up. As always he shows cinema as what it truly as - voyeurism. Astounding in every sense, this is a film that every cineaste should see. On my first viewing shortly after Warhol died, in my teens, I found that subconsciously this style was a huge influence onme though I didn't realize it til years later. It engages our sense fully, 100% of the time. He deprives us of so many things in order to enrich our experience and expand it as well. A film impossible to describe - if I wrote 1000 words I'd not get any closer. See it by all means whenever you get the chance.

As Davies has said many times, one of the single most important things to remember about his work is that his biggest influence is the Hollywood musicals of the 30s, 40s and 50s. This influence comes across in all of his films and especially with The Neon Bible.

Davies is also, in my opinion, one of the few directors who accurately depicts the act of remembering. Without giving anything away, it's always important to keep in mind that David is on a train, thinking and remembering. No one remembers something from the past totally, memory functions like fragments and it's up to us to flesh them out. Sometimes we think of something one way, later another away; forget, remember or distort. David is fleshing out the events of his life and that's th most important thing about the film. Sometimes we remember minute, isolated events... Davies puts those in the film as well. Just sit back and enjoy the pace of this remarkable film from an equally remarkable and brilliant director.

A sheet blowing - music from Gone With the Wind - he turns into high drama; Stephen Foster's 'Hard Times' as David begins to hit bottom. It IS a musical - Davies has always used music for forward his narrative and uses it in this film in a more sophisticated way than in his earlier films to even more startling effect.

Everyone turns in remarkable performances - the entire cast and the photography is beyond amazing. Davies is the master of the tracking shot.

Please, be patient with the pace of the film - sit back and enjoy the ride. Get used to the rhythms and then give all of yourself to the film, jump in. It's beautiful, melancholy and sad. Davies' films are always so full of life and this is no exception. No idea why this film gets a bad rap - hands down, one of the greatest films of the 1990s. It's totally unique - it comes from nowhere. Shots, colors, textures - all perfect. Everything. Enjoy the ride.

This is the kind of film where I don't wanna say too much... Well, to quote the great American composer, artist and thinker John Cage, 'I am interested in forms that we can't discuss, but only experience.' The Straight Story has to be experienced and then felt, then talked about. One one level, it's about a man seeking a kind of spiritual and emotional redemption; to put things right. Which oddly enough, is a main theme of Paris, Texas, which Harry Dean Stanton starred in. Lynch surrounds Alvin Straight with lots of people going a lot faster than he is, while he himself prefers a slow and very deliberate pace. It's a very potent message: slow down and see how much more you can see, experience and perceive. A great change of pace for Lynch. When it premiered at Cannes I'd heard that if you missed the credits, there's no way you'd be able to tell that Lynch directed the film. Not true. The whole film is filled with great Lynchian moments and images. I knew I'd probably like The Straight Story, but halfway through I found myself deeply in love with the film's beautiful poetry. Sissy Spacek and Richard Farnsworth both give remarkable and moving performances. Farnsworth is the kind of great actor where he doesn't even need to speak because you only need to look at his face and you can read every thought. Like I said above, uniquely American poetry of the best kind.

Ginger e Fred is much more a film about the Italian psyche than a film about an old dance team that reunites after 40 years to appear on a TV variety show. It takes place at Christmastime, and having spent Christmas in Rome, the fun-insane carnival atmosphere Fellini depicts is pretty accurate, but exaggerated for film. Walking around Rome I found subconscious playing back bits of the soundtrack and it was only then that I realized how much I love this film. It's also about people who time leave behind. And about two people who are tragically unable to say how much they do love each other. It's also very very funny. Fellini go the idea for the film after seeing his older films butchered on Italian TV. A highlight is an old woman who was paid not to watch TV for a month. She's brought into the studio a mental wreck, swearing she'll never do it again and promises to watch more and more TV.

Thirty-five years later, this film is amazing for many reasons, mostly perhaps for Antonioni's daring, bold, unique and amazing sense of colour. Great performances all around, great camera work, soundtrack - it's perfect. The theme is one that Antonioni has explored since his very first film: emotional, physical and historical alienation. Those who know the work of the artist Giorgio Morandi will find many similarities in the colour schemes and how Antonioni frames each shot. A rewarding, astonishing and visionary film in every sense.

Il Bidone is the story of an old and tired con man, who one day, when it's too late, finds himself transformed after he's gone through a redemption of sorts. One of Fellini's least seen films, and unfortunately for viewers in the US, a cut version has been the only one available since its initial release. Even still, it's an amazing film. As I remember it was Truffault who said of Il Bidone, 'I could watch Broderick Crawford die for hours!' And he was very right. Crawford tended to be such a hack in the vast majority of his work for films and TV, but Fellini got an extraordinary performance out of him. Makes you wonder if he was capable of things like this all the time - if so - what a sad loss for us. He was a really bad alcoholic and Fellini kept having to change the script, but later in life said it turned out better that way. If you cry while watching La Strada and Le Notti di Cabiria, Il Bidone will make you cry much more. A forgotten and neglected classic. Proof again of Fellini's astonishing love and compassion for all humanity.