http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/nov/28/ken-russell-appreciation-peter-bradshaw

I have not seen his work but look forward to finally seeing The Devil's when it is released on DVD soon.

Why does it fail?

Well I count point to the poor performance by Danny Huston whose constant smug grinning performance grates like hell, the unoriginal story elements, the shoe-horning of every Liberal concern in America. The overwhelming feeling that it should have been darker, more chance taking, more Noir in style and frankly better! Underwhelmed by something which I think should have been considerably better. I expected more from John Sayle who impeccable liberalism sometimes gets in the way of his filmmaking. I think this film would have succeded better if it had played up the corruption and the noir elements more at the expense of the immigration agenda which is substituted into the heart of the film at the expense of the story.

5/10

Has anyone seen Silver City? And what is the best Sayles movie?

• 1920s - FW Murnau (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, The Last Laugh, Nosferatu, Faust)
• 1930s - Ernst Lubitsch (Trouble In Paradise, Ninotchka, Shop Around the Corner)
• 1940s - Michael Powell (Matter of Life and Death, Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes)
• 1950s - Billy Wilder (Sunset Bvld, Ace in the Hole, Some Like it Hot, Witness for the Prosecution)
• 1960s - Ingmar Bergman (Persona, Winter Light, Silence, Through A Glass Darkly)
• 1970s - Francis Ford Coppola (Godfather 1 & 2, Conversation, Apocalypse Now)
• 1980s - Woody Allen (The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Another Woman, Radio Days, Hannah and Her Sisters)
• 1990s - Wong Kar-wai (Happy Together, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Days of Being Wild)
• 2000s - Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking, Air Doll, Distance, Nobody Knows)
• 2010s - Anh Hung Tran (Norwegian Wood)

This is my first stab at this, and I expect I have made some serious mistakes.

1940s was the toughest decade for me, with Jacques Tourneur, John Ford, Preston Sturges, John Huston and Hitchcock all coming very, very close. The other one I really toyed with was Nicholas Ray for the 1950s, when he was great he was the best but he had a few too many duds to ignore.

Jean Renoir did not get the 1930s, which would be the obvious answer, because I have not seen enough films from the big man.

Max Ophuls was the unluckiest director that came to my mind, he has a run of 6 or so brilliant films, however they span about a 7 year period from 1948 to 1955. If this had been one decade, he would have been a shoe-in for either decade, the 40s or the 50s.

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/invictus-trailer-arrives?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=news

Mel of course slots in nicely as the second greatest American director working.

Errol Morris's new film sounds very intriguing.

I am going to see it this afternoon.

I particularly like the following:-

The script is clunking, and poor Dunst joins Nicole Kidman and Bryce Dallas Howard in the list of Hollywood females who have sleepwalked trustingly through a Von Trier production.

I think she gets a lot out of actors and I like her minimal style.  She has a western in post-production called Meek's Cutoff.  I'll definitely be going to that one.

Has anyone seen her earlier film River of Grass?

His work in the 70s seems un-matched by no one! First by writing the brilliant screenplay for "Patton", a tremendous biopic. Then came The Godfather, The Conversation, Part 2, and Apocalypse Now. I don't think any director has had such an incredible run as this. And after seeing these four films, he is easily one my favorite directors now.

I'm curious, are than anyfilms of his post 70s that anyone here would reccomend???   

Fear City podcast from Mike last week was a real highlight, his description of the film makes it jump to the top of my must see list. It sounds simply hilarious. Though to be fair the podcast, which I held onto for a week probably hit me at the right time, as last night I watched the near masterpiece of sledgehammer cinema China Girl.

China Girl is Abel Ferrara taking a solid idea from Mr Bill Shakespeare and turning Romeo and Juliet into a entertaining gang film; or that is perhaps what you are meant to think. I, for one, do not think that Abel has actually read the play, but rather he is clearly remaking West Side Story (itself a Romeo and Juliet adaptation) without singing, but with David Caruso. The West Side Story references are thick and fast, and far above the nods to Shakespeare, as a massive fan of the musical I can heartily appreciate the demented exploitation version of the film that Ferrara has crafted. This is a 1980s classic, a delirious, ridiculous, camp classic. It has a little heroic bloodshed, a director more interested in gang warfare than any kind of romance, some of the most hilarious dancing this side of Cruising, an admirable but ham-fisted social message of tolerance and acceptance (though the film seems more turned on by the racist insults than any of the love and sex between our Romeo and Juliet); the single most bored looking female ever about to lose her virginity in cinema - in fact the sex scene in the middle of this film should have essays, novels and sonnets written about it, it is monumentally funny, never have two actors looked so bored. I am a big fan of genre cinema and this fits in nicely with all my love of that neglected artform, it clearly deserves masterpiece status, and Ferrara must be a better director than I ever gave him credit for.

Richard Panebianco & Sari Chang make an engaging, believably young, couple at the centre of the proceedings. There acting is not particularly expressive but they are solid and crucially for a film like this not annoying. It is the supporting cast who are the most fun to watch - James Russo, David Caruso (awesome performance), James Hong - and perhaps this causes the film some problems as Ferrara ends up spending far to long with interworkings of the gangs - this aint The Godfather - than with the love story. Yet if you are willing to go with this you get some great gang violence and some well shot fight scenes. The music, again could be a problem however if you go with it you will have fun. I laughed out loud at the scene where the camera caresses an album sleeve for Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run while the next song to come over the film was the complete antithesis of the Boss's aesthetic. It was funny to think how much Ferrara had to compromise for moneys-sake. The music gets not only a pass, but a recommendation from me because of the dancing in the film. There are two 'club' scenes that are not chellenging James Gray for quality, but rather look like something that would not have been out of place in Heartbreak High; if the teen dancing does not make you laugh in this film then you must be dead. There is simply so much in this film to enjoy!

Due to the Fear City review, and watching China Girl today, I went out and bought King of New York (the only Ferrara film I could in HMV) and fully intend catching up with an auteur who I have ignored for too long!

It starred Josh Harnett, surely it would get a UK release...But with Norwegian Wood (soundtracked by Johnny Greenwood!) on its way I broke down and imported it from Hong Kong.

And after seeing the film today, I can see why it did not get a release over here. The film is one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen. And while almost no-one will like this film I am strongly recommending it to everyone. There is something so uniquely off-putting and discordant about the whole film that it is a must see. The basic plot has an American ex-detective (Harnett) sent by a rich businessman to investigate and find his missing son, he soon hears from the last detective sent that the man could be in Hong Kong. He then hooks up with local cop (Shawn Yue) and tries to find him. Throw in a gangster played by Lee Byung-hun and his drug-addicted girl Tran Nu Yen-khe. And you have a fairly full plot. But this is not even half the story.

The film has one overacrching plot but it is really two separate stories, one of the stories is a version of the Passion Play and the other is a Manhunter style neo-noir serial killer inspired tale of gothic madness. These plots do not even try to meld themselves together. You have to applaud the ambition of the director. It is amazing to me that Anh Hung Tran has turned the passion play into a Miami Vice style action film, not even Mel Gibson had this much action, or has turned the cop with a past storyline into something this ridiculous. The film is tonally all over the shop.

And there are even more things which people will dislike more than this. The music, which is made up of Radiohead, Explosions in the Sky and other Post-Rock bands, is intrusive and over the top, the acting is dubious at best (other than Lee Byung-hun who is wonderful), the use of English by every character despite being in Hong Kong puzzling (though the mix of Korean, Japanese, Hong Kong & English actors means that probably the universal language would be English for every scene, just about flies...), the violence is too heavy for most arthouse crowds, the weird fetishistic body murders which reminds of Gunther Von Hagens and the Manhunter style flashback subplot is very silly.

But I loved every minute of this crazy baroque action film, Anh Hung Tran's words not mine. It looks incredible as you would expect from a master like Tran, there is incredible beauty in every scene even the violence. The violence is inventive and raw, Lee Byung-hun taking a hammer to someone, alive inside a bodybag while slipping on the spilled blood is an amazing scene. The Christ retelling is incredibly effective. The Bladerunner neo-noir of the main thrust of the plot is great for a fan of Neo-Noirs. The music is brilliant and I loved it. It might be intrusive, bombastic and over the top but as I liked the music I liked its use. I do not have anything against overdone music per se, only if I dislike the music itself. It is the music which annoys me, not the cinematic convention.

More action films should be this mental.

But it is John Wayne that I want to discuss.

He was a hero of mine when I was a kid. Not him per se, but rather the character he played in films. I used to watch them all on BBC2. I have found that as I have gotten older that I have not moved far away from my Wayne, if anything else it has become more acute. I may have moved from the later, fatter, rolicking adventure films to the more unusual performances that were dotted throughout his lenghty career. I love the prematurely aged performances in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon & Red River; the young action hero performance in Stagecoach & Fort Apache; the more bitter turn in The Searchers & Sands of Iwo Jima; the genuinely funny straight comedic performances in El Dorado & Rio Bravo. He is the ultimate star to me, and to a lot of others, but I think he is greatly underrated as an actor (which a lot of probably has to do with his abhorent political viewpoint) and I honestly cannot think of a better performance in the 1960s in any film than his in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

What do other people think of him? He seems to be actor that 'real' cinema fans do not particularly like, and if that is the case will he survive as an icon as the temporal move from his films becomes more increased?

Does anyone have a favourite Wayne film that is not The Searchers?

Bunny Lake is Missing ^

Peeping Tom ^

I went to see this at the weekend, absolutely brilliant stuff from Gilliam. The staging is incredible. Gilliam's aesthetic is front and centre.

• Girls' Night Out (1998)
• Tears (2000)
• A Good Lawyer's Wife (2003)
• The President's Last Bang (2005)
• The Old Garden (2006)
• The Housemaid (2010)

And the two I have seen - The Housemaid & The President's Last Bang - mean that he deserves a thread of his own.

The President's Last Bang is a fictional retelling of a real event. It is his version of what happened when South Korean President Park Chung-hee was assassinated in 1979 by his KCIA Chief Kim Jae-kyu and the coup that followed. It is not based on real events and is mostly made up beyond the real historical event that inspires the events. The closest comparison I can think to the film is Il Divo but with a more centred storyline, or at least on that is easier to follow to its conclusion. The President's Last Bang manages to be both a visceral film about a rather brutal assassination and a hilarious black comedy about the same event. The film is absolutely laugh out loud funny in places, combining an almost slapstick comedic edge to the political shenanigans that are what the film is about. It is a masterpiece of cinema. If you are not well versed in Korean history - and I am certainly not, though I did know the events that the film was based upon - it is an incredible ride through an interesting period; though it is no way considered to be based on any kind of facts. I think it is a must see.

The Housemaid, on the other hand, is a glamourous, superficial erotic thriller that has a final sequence that David Lynch would have been gleeful about. It is a glancing shot across the bow of class divide, issues with money and the super-rich getting whatever they can. It is a savage, glossy melodrama that pulls no punches at all. I loved every silly minute of it. Another masterpiece but one that will not be for everyone and that I can say for sure.

Has anyone else seen any of the other four films he has made?

Ok, so to start off, we know that Wilder was great at both comedy and drama, but if you had to settle for either his comedies or dramas, which would you settle for?

UGETSU (1953):

In my film class, my professor will be screening Ugetsu, but I saw it available on netflix instant-watch and while I originally planned to only watch a few minutes to see how it will be like, I ended up becoming instantly swept up in the story. I though it was awesome!

And I can't help but compare him to Kurosawa, but out of the 4 films I have seen from him, I thought this was BY FAR better ( Well, "High and Low" is pretty great, but this is still way way better.)

During a civil war in feudal Japan in the 16th Century, two peasant couples (one of which has a child), struggle to deal with the terror and natural economic woes which they deal with daily as it is. The two men of the two families now find an oppurtunity to strike it big during the war, but to do so they each have to leave their loved ones behind and defenseless. One of the peasants is driven by his dream of becoming a samurai; the other (which brings a super-natural twist to the story) is seduced by a beautiful, rich ghost who promises and tempts him with everlasting wealth if he devotes his life to her, thus disregarding his actual wife and son.

It is a beautifully tragic story, and yes at times it is a little heavy-handed, specifically at the end, but it is mostly completely well-done -- instantly involving and I actually really cared for the characters, who the actors portrayed very well (theatrical, of course, but not nearly as over-bearing as the previously mentioned Japaneese director, IMHO!). Mizoguchi proves himself really masterful, however, at use of the camera and he stages some really beautiful scenes. Great set-design and some quite haunting imagery (some of the sequences involving the ghost are even creepy as well)

Awesome film, all the way through!!

10/10

Who are your top 10 directors? And who have you seen the most movies by?

For full disclosure given my user name, I have seen 29 Ozu movies.

The person that can get closest to my best 10 will win a prize of a Tokyo Story book.

And to give you a head start Ozu, Bresson and Welles would definitely feature.

So to clarify give me your best 10 and your guess at my best 10. I will choose a winner on the 14th December at noon.

Swimming Pool - Charlotte Rampling plays a successful crime writer, who seems bored with both her characters and the burden of looking after an ageing father, she is convinced by Charles Dance, her publisher, to go to his house in the French countryside to relax and begin writing again. Ludivine Sagnier turns up, she is Dance's daughter, and reeks some sexual havoc upon the previously peaceful house. The film is a beautifully shot, in a kind of Marcel Pagnol Provence way. And Charlotte Rampling's performance is typically brittle cold and extremely effective. She is the freezer version of Helen Mirren. However, the film is far from perfect, and was probably a bit of a hit because of the poster of Sagnier in bikini. Sagnier, while being fairly sexy, is not the best actress in the world, and as the plot corkscrews in all directions towards the end, lets the film down pretty badly with her limited range. Despite this major problem, I have a great fondness for the film, it is a icy thriller with a brilliant denoument, some weird sexual undertones and some wonderful moments. 7/10.

5x2 - This is the only other film by Ozon which I have seen. Basically the plot is 5 separate scenes from a disintegrating marriage, these are the usual kind of things divorce, wedding, birth of a child and first meeting. However what gives this film its power is that Ozon plays the scenes in reverse order. The end of the relationship comes first and works its way backwards towards the first meeting. This tactic, while being a little heavy handed for some, works brilliantly in this instance. The performances of the two leads are solid, they portray a middle class marriage with a nice range of emotions. The film's greatest strength is its rather oblique tone, its difficulty. It greatest weakness is the, deliberately, awful music choices. Worth seeing 7.5/10

Are any of Ozon's other films worth a look?

I have been meaning to check out both Time to Leave & 8 Women for a few years now. Worth while?

This is a visually incredible film, the choreographed visions of men working in the burning African sun provide some of the most arresting images I have seen. From the shots of girls dancing; to underwater knife movements; men crawling under barbed wire; ironing clothes to almost every deliberate shot in the film. And each shot is very deliberate. The film just looks incredible. The director, Claire Denis, solely on the basis of me seeing this film goes into the top level hierarchy for modern visual splendor. She can easily sit alongside illuminaries such as Wong Kar Wai. Obviously much of the credit should go to Agnes Godard, the cinematographer. The film also has perfectly judged sound design, the use of music in the opening and especially the ending are fantastic. Not many endings which I enjoyed more than this one.

The plot of the film concerns some French Legionnaires, and a loose retelling of the Melville novel Billy Budd. Galoup (played exquisitely by Denis Lavant) is a Sergeant in the Foreign Legion, most of his jobs seem to consist in leading a lot of half naked men in a series of convulted exercise regimes. The Legion is joined by Sentain (Gregoire Colin), this annoys Galoup, as his envy of Sentain reeks havoc. Events unfold. However, like most World Cinema films the plot is rather secondary to the image; it is more impressionistic and poetic than procedural. This lack of procedure slightly hurts the film, in that the character motivation for the conclusion of the story seems rather forced and overtly melodramatic.

The film really works despite this. It works best when it is most impressionistic: the scenes which scream repressed homosexuality, to the exercise regimes which are more or less a dance when on camera, to the brief glimpses of the natives of the land.

I have one query though, I wonder if the film had been made by a man and the Legionnaires would have been female, would we be discussing misogyny rather than one of the best of the last 10 years. I am not sure. There is a very clear leering eye from the camera, which if it had been focused on the female form could have proved troublesome. However, I suppose it is nice to have such a forceful female voice in Cinema as Denis, especially as seen in this film.

Last thing - the last scene is such a winner.

1. Terrance Malick
2. Theo Angelopoulos
3. Apichatpong Weerasetakil
4. Hirokazu Koreeda
5. Bela Tarr
6. Michael Haneke
7. Joel and Ethan Coen
8. Susan Bier
9. Wong Kar Wai
10. Werner Herzog

Ironically, I can see why some might find Le Samourai to perhaps be "slow" with the minimal dialog and what not (I don't think a word is uttered during the first 10 minutes), but really this might be the most brilliantly plotted film I have ever seen. I don't believe there is a second wasted throughout the whole film, no real exposition, with the story developing completely naturally and everything feeling realistic, yet the film still builds mood, atmosphere, and suspense effortlessly. I love the quiet, understated, minimalist nature of this film. Everything so cold and dark and moody, from the rainy weather, to the drabby and barren apartment, to the quietly effective musical score, and to the coldness of the main protagonist's appearance -- Alan Delon's eyes being mesmerizing at times. I like the mysterious nature of the main character. Maybe frustrating to some, but I like how the film offers no contrived scenes of phony introspection. We watch closely, often looking to his eyes, as we try to find moments of weakness, of human quality. In addition to being brilliantly directed, there are some also fantastic exchanges of dialog buried within all the quiet, stylish moodiness. The exchange between the police chief and Costello's girlfriend as they raid her apartment is amazing, and throughout there are a number of awesome moments. And the ending is beautifully constructed, leaving us on a mysterious and haunting note. It left me stunned.

Easily one of the best films I have ever seen.

10/10

I definitely look forward to seeing more of Melville's films now. Any fans here?

Yasujiro Ozu’s penultimate film is his usual family drama set in post-War Japan, highlighting the struggles of modernisation against worshipping the past. And as usual it is magnificent. The film is beautifully composed in a series of muted colour scenes, his use of colour for the last five minutes is particularly stunning. It is a moving and elegiac piece of cinema, which conforms to no stereotypes but Ozu’s own. The performances are uniformly great, but it is really is the irascible old man who plays the father in the piece who steals the show. The film is surprisingly funny, incredibly moving, a real masterpiece of cinema. The relationship between the 3 sisters almost reminded me of the Anh Hung Tran masterpiece At the Height of Summer and I cannot believe that this film is not a significant influence on the later work. Ozu never fails to amaze me as a director, and while this is not my favourite of his work, it is undoubtedly another classic. I expect his filmography has many more of these classics just waiting to be discovered.

I have seen around 10 Ozu films, the main ones predominantly, out of his 54 films (IMDB). What are the best of his underseen work?

Does anyone not enjoy his films?