What is The Last Movie You Watched?

[maaarc]

sad.....not a movie a documentary - slums of Philippines

[maaarc]

The Cremator (1969)



This be one crazy MOFO movie.

From a review online:

The movie takes place against the backdrop of the political radicalization of Europe during the 1930s, more specifically the demise of the golden era of the First Czechoslovak Republic and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi Germany. Spiritually, the movie takes place in the aftermath of the death of Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama in 1933.

Karl Kopfrkingl works at a crematorium in Prague. Obsessed with his duties, he believes he is not just cremating the dead, but liberating the souls of the departed. With Nazi forces gathering at the Czech border, he descends into a mania that allows him to enact his disturbed beliefs.


In late 1930's Prague, Kopfrking (Hrusínský) is a misguided, enigmatic crematorium operator. He is an impeccably groomed, eerie, and meticulous figure, always talking in a hypnotic, soft spoken, poetic manner. He is overly preoccupied with mortality, morbidity, and the human soul, and deeply devoted to the funerary arts.

Kopfrking feels a physical affection for the instrumentality of his trade, lovingly caressing the equipment of the crematory process. He speaks constantly, literally and metaphorically, of death and the liberation of the soul through the process of cremation.

As the story progresses, he becomes increasingly obsessed with his work, finding it glorifying and cathartic. He sees visions of the ghost of his living wife in her youth, along with his future incarnation, as he begins a spiraling descent into fantasy and madness. He is on a mission to free the souls of the deceased (and in time the not-so deceased) through the pyrolization of human flesh, be it living or dead—just as long as that flesh is consumed and vaporized by fire.

The pre-WWII German propaganda machine is enveloping Eastern Europe, polarizing aspiring Nazis and oppositionists. Drawn toward the philosophy of the Third Reich, Kopfrking becomes morbidly obsessed with racial purity and the percentage of German blood flowing within his own veins—literally, to the point of having his vessels opened and the contents examined. While The Cremator is not a raving anti-Nazi film, it uses the political ideology as an allegory for exploring the phenomenon of sweeping, consuming mass delusion and insanity.

The gathering of Nazi forces on the border offers Kopfrking an opportunity to realize his misguided aspirations on a grand scale, one much larger than he could have ever hoped for, one seemingly without limit. Before applying his fervor and passion to the task, he hatches a plan to betray and destroy his own acquaintances, colleagues and family.

While there are elements of black satire in the The Cremator, the movie is so compelling as to nearly overshadow it. The film insidiously and steadily flows to its inevitable and horrifying conclusion like a hot rivulet of liquefied fat.

The production design is crisp and symmetrical. Stanislav Milota’s stunning black and white cinematography is haunting and beautiful. It features successions of extreme closeups that emphasize the slightly grotesque and disturbing features of the biological condition. Milota’s use of black and white film stock’s enhanced tonal range is artfully employed to focus attention on rich textures and multitudes of shades. This gives The Cremator a uniquely unsettling dreamlike quality. The musical score by Zdenek Liska is alluring, phantasmic, and aesthetically intriguing. Viewing The Cremator is akin to experiencing a nightmare that one is reluctant to wake from.

The Cremator was a Czech nominee for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.

[Tori Soshi]

I had a lovely time seeing X-men with a client last night.

He just wanted a dinner and movie date.

[Odelay]

Blue is the Warmest Color

My favorite love story on film is Brokeback Mountain. It surprised me when I reached that conclusion because although I find Ang Lee's films usually enjoyable, I would have never thought a film by him could rise to that level of affectation for me. But of course, Annie Proulx's story, the setting and the great acting had a lot to do with my high opinion, too.

I liked Stavros' and Prospero's write ups of this movie, so I don't know that I have much more to add from a critique standpoint. As for my opinion, this movie almost rises to the level of Brokeback. Both movies took me back to painful experiences in my own life. But they also both depict love as something completely transformational, and eternal, I might add. I found very little that was fake in this movie. As Stavros points out, the closeups are amazing. Watching the characters, this up close, made it feel like I was in an emotional simulator.

Twenty minutes into the film on Netflix, I noticed there was almost 2.5 hours remaining. I thought... holy jesus, do I really want to spend this much time watching the movie? After that brief moment, I never thought about it again.

I will add one thing that isn't any kind of spoiler that I really enjoyed. The length of the film allowed the filmmaker to show people actually eating, sleeping, thinking, etc. Doing real things. Fuzz gets in a person's hair and it takes awhile to remove it. They show that. And the other thing they show is a lot of dancing, but not just one time as a gimmick, but as a thing that changes depending on the venue, the company of people, and the passage of time. It was one of the threads throughout the movie that helped to hold it all together.

I recommend it.

[pantybulge69]

XMEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST:
Very Good but not a classic great, IMO. Quicksilver (who will also be in Avengers 2 Age of Ultron) was a hoot. Mystique, Magneto, Wolverine and the Sentinels lead the way. Saw very little of Storm. Wish Colossuss had a bigger role.

[rockabilly]

X-Men - Days of Future Past 3D

[robertlouis]

The Two Faces of January. Fine adaptation of a lesser-known Patricia Highsmith novel with Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac. Set in Greece and Turkey in the early 60s, it captures the delicious mix of tension and moral ambiguity that made the late Ms Highsmith such a beguiling author. Fine performances from the leads, minimal sex or violence, but all in all an entirely satisfying 96 minutes; if you can't tell the story in less than 100 minutes, don't make the film, if it's a thriller.

Oh, and the score, by Alberto Iglesias, is perfect, like Bernard Herrmann at his very best for Hitchcock.

[AshlynCreamher]

a horrible Syfy documentary about space aliens and ufo's, it was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life.

[Jericho]

Escape Plan...Stallone & Schwarzenegger...I was entertained and mildly amused!

[Prospero]

"A bout de Souffle (Breathless)". Jean Luc Godard's first film. Superb.



and "The Lincoln Lawyer"



A plodding and predictable courtroom film. Watchable but not much more.