Cinema
Jeff's Favorite Movies
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The Green Wall (La Muralla Verde) (1970) - This Peruvian
film was listed in Siskel and Ebert's "If we owned a movie theater" list
of ten films. This is a slice of life film about a family that carves a
farm out of the jungle (hence the title). It presents a balanced view of
an everyday family trying to make a better life for themselves. A rare
find if you get a chance to see it. I caught it in the Newburyport
Screening Room, north of Boston.
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Walkabout (1971) - This Nicolas Roeg film follows two children
from just before they are abandonded in the Australian outback to just
after they are "rescued". The title comes from the Aborigine they run into
who is in his solo coming of age ritual, the "walkabout". The juxtaposition
of the characters' worlds (advanced/technical vs. primitive/natural) appears
on many levels. I've seen this film a few times, but everytime I watch
it I find another gem of insight into the human condition.
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Multiple Maniacs (1971) - This John Water's film is one of his
best and is his own personal favorite. Starring Divine, it manages to repeatedly
upstage the absurdity of the plot more times than I can count. I remember
seeing it in Berkeley for reasons that I can't recall. Definitely not for
the queasy. The climax of the absurdity is squarely in the "lobster scene".
Again, this is pre-mainstream Waters, you've been warned!
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9 1/2 Weeks (1986) - This film deserves credit for its Nicolas
Roeg like cinematography, the scenes that caught my eye from this perspective
were:
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Basinger alone in her kitchen. The kid popping into view at the top
of each swing on a swingset and the cat lapping up the spilled milk (I
think these were both in the same scene). The camera for the cat shot is
literally on the floor, a very Roeg like technique.
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The Nakamichi tape deck doing its unique tape flipping action in Rourke's
apartment. This shot is in the advertising / commercial photography world
style, but is that style at its best.
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I liked the protrayal of the older artist that Basinger convinces to
do an exhibit; the artist is clearly in a far different world than the
New York art scene. She visits the reclusive artist and finds him staring
at a (trout?) he's holding, completely overcome by the beauty of the animal
in his hands. Having convinced him to do the exhibit, at the opening the
artist is completely out of his element and obviously uncomfortable. While
much of the movie deals with the exploitation of Basinger's character,
this theme is reflected in a more subtle way in the character of this exploited
artist.
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True Stories (1986) - This David Byrne film (of Talking Heads
fame) weaves together dozens of human interest stories clipped from newspapers
around the country:
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"Lonely Bachelor Hungers for Love" - World Weekly News - The background
for John Goodman's character, a nice guy with a really big heart looking
for matrimony.
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"Loving Couple Hasn't Spoken for 31 Years" - World Weekly News - Husband
played by Spaulding Gray. Gray is tremendous in this film.
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"Off with Their Hats!" - World Weekly News - About the absurd hat fashions
of society ladies, displayed in the movie in a runway fashion show. Byrne's
wife (I believe) did the fashions in the movie brilliantly satirizing haute
cotoure (sp?).
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Natural Born Killers (19??) - This is masterpiece of surrealism,
if you can tolerate the violence. A sense of unreality exists through most
of the film, culminating with the escape scene. The casting choice of Woody
Harrilson's father (which I won't divulge), is by itself a surrealistic
stroke of genious!
It's a bit odd that most of my favorite films fall into either the 70/71
era, or 86. I'm not sure why this is.
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