Movie Club Against Depression Part II...

[Pony]

I am starting a part II Movie Club thread because the other one has grown to big for the system.

Please cont. to contribute on here.........

Thanks,


Pony

[Lilya]

Dear Reiki and all,

Movie Club for Mental Health, Part II. This is an honour indeed. I hope that more will join in our discussion on films and come up with ideas to help us to feel better. I don´t know what´s better than I good movie.

Reiki, please read my last post about "Deconstructiong Harry" by Woody Allen. I recommended it to you for a real laugh. If you´re a Woody Allen fan, you´ll love it. I think it´s one of his best.

It reminded me of Ingmar Bergman´s "Wild Strawberries" from 1956 and as I´m a French Scandinavian and a fan of Bergman, I also recommend that move. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050986/

It is interesting to compare these two films. When I get back home - my house will be ready Friday a week from now - I will dig it up and watch it.

Arura, sweetie, how are you? I hope you´re feeling better. Did you see a good film last night? I must admit I watched "Finding Nemo" with my niece again. I´ve probably seen it 1000 times! Enough now. It´s interesting though that when the cousin of the dentist appears, we hear the music from Hitchcock´s Pshyco.

Fellow travellers on the road to recovery, I hope you´ll join us.

Love and light,

[reikihelps]

I'm off to rent Deconstructing Harry, Lilya. Thank you! Ingmar Bergman.....hmmmmm I'll check it out.
Hey, Pony, Can we still read the first thread even though we can't post there anymore? It's a nice listing I can consult when I rent films.

[PapaG]

"p.s. Notice that 16,000 people have read this thread!!!!! geez. what a shock"

by Reiki

REiki, don't you realise it's just because you, me, Lilya and Arura keep checking our posts...only one person has actually viewed the thread apart from us who've read it 15, 000 odd times!!

Anyway,

If you want a good belly laugh...CLERKS is a really funny movie..and wierd to boot,

Then of course there's


THE BIG LEBOWSKI (sorry..I just had to mention it one more time)

I really like that Australian film 'Malcolm' it's dead funny too....


Hm, Can't think of much else...maybe I'm too serious a guy

[reikihelps]

LOL
Here's 16, 001 PapaG : )

[Lilya]

I don´t believe you! LOL. I certainly never read my posts 16.000 times! I´m nuts, but not as nutty as that. I´m proud, because I started this thread back in 2004 and I firmly believe some members have secretely read it!

I left Sober Recovery for 18 months, only recently came back and it´s still here!

Reiki, you must be proud too. I look forward to hear what you think about "Deconstructing Harry". I know you won´t be put off by some swear words, cynical humour and political controversy.

I´m on to something romantic... A friend came by with a B-movie, called "Captives" with Tim Roth and Julia Ormond. Has anyone seen it?

Love and light,

[PapaG]

I ain't seen it it Lilya, but it sounds interesting and Tim Roth is cool.

I do like a bit of Woody too! The one with the orgasmatron is hilarious...



PEACE

[Arura]

Im abit of a Tim Roth fan as hes working class British...! good director...! Gritty Stuff.

Its great that the thread got soooo Long, i also use it as a refreance place if im stuck for a movie too... .

Way to Go ((Lilya)), 'Movies Against Deprssion' strike 2 {M.A.D}...lol.

Its 'Vannilla Sky' for me tonight. I do like that film...! tom looking ugly...

O.K, anyone seen 'pirates of the Cariabbian' {sp}..? Yet i carn wait to see it.. the b/f keeps asking if i want to go to the cinima...But ive been too busy or tryed to tell you the truth...!

[MagdaM]

I watched some mel brooks films the past 2 weeks. always funny, not triggering.

[Lilya]

I love Woody, PapaG. He says for me what I cannot say to my business partners, co-workers, e-husbands, boyfriends and family.

Listen Arura,I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the Tim Roth film. It´s really good! I do reccommend it. Both he and Julia Ormond play their complex and difficult roles to perfection.

I said my niece could see "The Pirates of the Caribbean" with her two best friends and their mothers. She is now dressing up like a pirate girl and speaks of nothing else but Johnny Depp. She´s eight. This starts earlier than I remember...

Welcome, Magda. I´m very glad you´re contributing. I don´t know much about Mel Brooks, but I saw his comedies on Hitchcock. That was great. I´m sure some one here will know more about him than I do.

So what are you all watching?

Love and light,

[PapaG]

I just finished watching Lynch's Lost Highway one of the few films of his I'd missed.

I couldn't understand it of course, which is typical of his later films. That didn't make it any less brilliant though. As far as I'm concerned, it's all in the aesthetic and sound with Lynch..to me the dialogue is often secondary in importance in his movies..some of the music in this film was a bit too much for my taste..I usually think that's one of the things he does so well...the choice of score...but, that's not to say it didn't work. If you haven't seen it you must watch it. Five stars and an extra one just for being David Lynch and being a genius of alternative cinema.

[Lilya]

"Lost Hightway"! Oh, vouw.

One of my favorites. You´re right about Lynch´s movies, PapaG. It´s not really meant to be understood. Lynch works a lot in France and is inspired by the French surrealists like André Breton etc. His films are all based on dreams and are guided by the subconsious. The house that burns in the wrong order, the dwarf on the telephone who claims he is in the main character´s house. It transgresses normal dimensions and is a reconstruction of thought.

One scene in it is from real life, though. It´s the scene about the guy who is tailgating. It happened to Lynch himself many years before he made that film, some guy tailgated him for many hours. He vowed to recreate that scene and give the driver a beating, which he didn´t do in real life.

Love and light,

[PapaG]

Thanks for the info Lilya!

As I said before, I don't know too much about French cinema, but I did wonder what, if anything, Lynch is influenced by. I loved Mulholland drive too - a film where everything works but you're left with no real understanding ofthe events in a logical sense. Thinking about it, a great many of my dreams make absolutely no sense either! Give me some tips about a few French films I could check out - I'd like to broaden my horizons ever further...and when watching a film, I never think about drinking or any of that other rubbish I was involved in - it's always a good remedy for a troubled mind


PEACE

[Arura]

Me too PapaG...! Easy to forget when you watch a movie...!

[Lilya]

French movies, here we go.

I´t is my personal belief that the French cinema was almost dead since the "Nouvelle vague" (Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, etc) but there has been some revivals lately, like "Amélie Poulain" and "Delicatessen".

Here is a link featuring the most famous French films from the beginning to contemporary cinema. It is safe to reccommend them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_France

Here are some of my personal favorites:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043686/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053198/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082370/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057345/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085180/

More will be revealed. Have fun!

Love and light,

[PapaG]

Well Thanks Lilya!!!

[reikihelps]

thanks, Lilya! I love Amelie Poulan. My daughter will have a foreign film to share every now and then. She is working on her Italian fluency so she watches Italian films.
And PapaG, think of Lynch as though he is presenting a dream. If you relax your mind and let the images speak, they are so compelling. They are not sequential and linear (like most American films) but so intriguing. Actually, I find they hit me on such a level that I often feel shook up after watching him. Know what I mean? Hi Magda : )
Tom really looks ugly, Arura?!?! I obviously haven't seen Vanilla Sky.

[Lilya]

Dear Reiki,

Which Tom looks ugly? Tom Cruise?

I think he has serious personal problems (I saw clips from the famous Ophrah show where he behaved like a mad man, LOL) but his acting in the films "Collateral" and "Magnolia" is perfect. I had forgotten what an amazingly good actor he is when I saw these films.

"Amélie Poulain" is a good. It´s a satyre of French life and it´s pretensiousness.

I saw a wonderful film with one of my friends: "Picknick at Hangin Rock" by Peter Weir. I love Australian films. Then we saw "Heavenly Creatures" with Kate Winslett. Has anyone here seen it? So powerful and frightening...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073540/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110005/

Love and light,

[MagdaM]

I pretty much think Tom Cruise is bats and he hasn't looked to good for like the past decade. Plus he's being really creepy about his baby. Wierd. As far as french films I remember I watched one that was really depressing and long. It was about this little fat firl who nobody liked and her parents locked her int he closet. Then she grows up to be this fat depressed woman who nobody likes, falls in love, gets screwed over, and dies in her garden and nobody cares. Probably not representative of all french films, but I think thats my only reference point.

Someone mentioned david lynch who i like a lot. most people like his later stuff but have you seen Eraserhead? That is pretty much the wierdest movie i have EVER seen. (i think im gonna rent it again now that im sober. I hope its as wierd as i remember).

I like sci-fi movies a lot, especially from like thge 80's because they never took themselves too seriously. Army of Darkness, Highlander, Back to the Future, Ghost Busters, and there are some more upscale ones too I guess like Bladerunner. THe other day I watched Johnny Mnemonic (sp?) which is form the 90s but anyway old sci-fi is awesome.

[Arura]

Ditto that M, same taste there honi...X

[Lilya]

Magda,

this French movie rings a bell. I´ve seen it, but I don´t remember it. LOL That´s probably for the best. It´s probably been on TV. We have many silly real life shows too. This film you mention reminds me of one I saw, but will never forget. It was about a young woman who lived for Diet-Coke. She drank gallons of it and did nothing else. Each night she put her alarm, because she only slept four hours so she could drink her Diet-coke.

To me, David Lynch is wonderful and among my favorites. I´ve seen "Eraserhead". It´s definately weird to say the least. Sci-Fi´s are the films I like the least, but "Blade Runner" is beautiful. I can see it again and again.

I want to see "Lost Highway" again. It´s incredibly rich. There is a scene in it that makes me think of why I became clean and sober... or at least one of the reasons. In this scene, a man is lying in bed and turns around to look at his wife, but sees a terrible monster in her place. Enough said.

Love and light,

[MagdaM]

ooh lost highway is really good. along those lines did you ever see the salton sea? its not as good but it kind of reminds me of lost highway.

[Lilya]

No, I haven´t seen "Salton Sea". I looked it up in IMDB.com and it looks interesting. Is it weird, like Lynch´s films?

How about Clint Eastwood? I like the way he looks. I saw "Play Misty for Me" the other day. So spooky! Some of the films he makes are quite good.

We have the same birthday, LOL. He ages well and is a late bloomer! I hope the same goes for me.

Movies are my answer to keep being sober. I don´t know where I would be without them.

Love and light,

[Arura]

I totally agree with the wierd one Tom cruise..! . Stange man... I thought he could'nt have kids if ya know what i mean...!

(((Lilya))) ive seen 'Le Haine' its great moody, thought provoking, real to life, film. Hope your well Sweetie.XxXxxxxx

Im into all sorts of movies, but my favs are the sic fi,horror,thrillers...

Hithkock is another fav of mine...!

[PapaG]

ahhh Hitchcock...

Yeeee...Love rear window, and the great camera shot in Psycho (which is also a great film) ...camera moves up the stairs turns arou nd and looks back down again in one take...witho ut trace of the various pulleys etc that were used..fantastic. I love Vertigo too...fantastic and the birds is also cool. Vertigo and rear window for me though..


Reiki, your point on Lynch...I agree with you about the dream characteristic of his films but as well as that, and the intrigue it creates so far as a narrative (or not) is concerned, I feel that he is also presenting art and style as image..I mean, he has this obsession with late fifties decor and a variety of pre-sixties fashions (especially in his portrayal of women). He does all this to beautiful effect I think..it makes for a very stimulating visual experience alone, aside from sound, score, storylines etc..furniture, that could be regarded as ugly...and seemingly hideous wall-decor often find themselves elevated to an ethereal state..which is both beautiful and shocking...