The Overly Pretentious Film Discussion Thread

[CConn]

First topic:

Which of Terrance Mallick's early efforts do you consider the superior film; Badlands or Days of Heaven?

 

[childeroland]

Days of Heaven. Grander scale, bigger emotions, more successfully elemental, all this related in a more economic fashion.

 

[CConn]

Hm. I agree.

Plus, I don't know, it seemed a lot more benign and elusive in it's emotional and psychological impact. Everyone was a bit more complex.

Badlands, most of the time, played around with the usual stereotype of traditional 50s/60s Americana, which has been done countless times in countless ways. Days of Heaven was a bit more unique, with much fewer popular examples of that genre and theme.

 

[Crockett]

Days of Heaven for me too, this was the film that I was really marveled by Malick's meticulously and meditative style, also the locust scene is just one of the many scenes to die for.

 

[childeroland]

Even though it starts out as another couple-on-the-run film, Malick isn't distant or ironic with his characters this time. They're players in a larger cosmic story (the way he focuses on the landscape and seasons changing around them) but just as much in the foreground. I wonder if this isn't apparent enough to viewers in To the Wonder -- if the human story was too much in the foreground compared to its place in the larger cosmic story -- and that is why the film did not work for a lot of people.

 

[weezerspider]

I like the idea of this thread. I realize the name is a joke, but get the overall 'idea' behind this thread. I dig it.

To answer your question, I prefer Badlands.

 

[CConn]

New question!

After viewing the entirety of Ingmar Bergman's Trilogy of Faith (A Mirror Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence) what would you say was Bergman's ultimate comment regarding his faith, and which film best illustrated his point?

 

[childeroland]

The trilogy is Bergman shedding the religion of his upbringing -- which he considered a servile Christianity -- and working his way to a faith powered by the realization that his own suffering mirrors Christ's and that it is his own sense of spiritual responsibility, showed in human compassion and devotion in the face of God's seeming unresponsiveness (God's silence) that he must retain. Toma's sermon to a (near) empty church at the end of Winter Light, after the sexton has pointed out to him that God does not answer Jesus on the cross, probably best illustrates that.

 

[gwynplaine]

Good thread. Can we offer the possibility of a new pretentious discussion (or two,) or is it only you Cconn?

For example:

- "To each their own of course, but why is Godard studied in Film School (maybe still to this day who knows?) and seems to have endured and been revered for the longest time in some cinephile circles, when in my opinion all he's really done are two, maybe two and a half great films?" (I might be generous.)

- "Early Fellini or later period of the Maestro's work? Which do you prefer and why?" (Not sure where the cutting point would be between early and later work, but that could be part of the discussion, if anyone is interested.)

 

[childeroland]

Which is the half great film?

And the earlier Fellini (except Amarcord). I guess the cut-off point might be Juliet of the Spirits? Except for Amarcord and maybe Roma, that may be the last undoubtedly great thing he did. His later stuff kind of dissolves into episodic fantasias like Satyricon (or somewhat tiresome pop culture indictments like Ginger and Fred), but unlike Juliet they increasingly have less-and-less holding them together except for the spectacle.

 

[gwynplaine]

Which is the half great film?

And the earlier Fellini (except Amarcord). I guess the cut-off point might be Juliet of the Spirits? Except for Amarcord and maybe Roma, that may be the last undoubtedly great thing he did. His later stuff kind of dissolves into episodic fantasias like Satyricon (or somewhat tiresome pop culture indictments like Ginger and Fred), but unlike Juliet they increasingly have less-and-less holding them together except for the spectacle.

"One+One." The part where the Rolling Stones are recording "Sympathy for the Devil."t:

I agree about Fellini. I'm a huge fan of his earlier work, but he kinda lost me later on me when his films became too much like you said: "episodic fantasias"