Life as Fiction's comments - page 4

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It's not necessary to discredit a film in advance simply because it keeps one from finishing a list on iCM. By most accounts, this is one of the most important films to ever come out of Pakistan, and as film lovers, we should be appreciative of the fact that its mention on these lists has given it exposure that it otherwise would lack.
12 years 5 months ago
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Poetry is not a melodrama. It is not about the underdog coming out victorious. As Mija writes her poem, there is a solemn tone of acceptance that the world will go on—but we know this acceptance has a price, and what's important is that we fight with her so that only she, independently, gets to judge its true value. •••
12 years 6 months ago
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During this ride, which can effectively be described as a classic noir tale with a penchant for real violence, there is nary a hole that can be poked. Every second is necessary, every shot elegant, every piece of music supports the action on the screen. Every question normally asked of a film, this one answers either with some level of extrapolation or faith in its characters. Gosling, credited simply as "Driver," is reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's The Man with No Name. We gradually discover over time that he's exactly the kind of person missing in 99% of Hollywood cinema: One that doesn't cop out. That, in itself, is a tremendous victory. •••
12 years 6 months ago
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It's interesting to see A Separation gradually go back up the rankings now that it's finally been made available in many parts of Europe.
12 years 6 months ago
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There are no other ways to describe this than with the kind of love and admiration one has for the medium itself, and how glad I am to have finally witnessed the kind of work that makes watching cinema a necessary part of life. •••
12 years 6 months ago
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Tekkon Kinkreet paints a portrait of adolescence with the right pigments and shades, with beauty and sorrow, loneliness and anger all packed into tight spaces that refuse to go away once the credits roll. •••
12 years 6 months ago
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While it may be a ridiculous musical with an abrasive color palette, misplaced violence and oodles of sexual innuendo, it also ends up falling just short of being a masterpiece of human resilience. •••
12 years 6 months ago
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Life as Fiction

Much to Churchill's annoyance, Powell & Pressburger question the gentleman's rules of warfare underneath the veil of a romantic epic. Wonderful, epic and subtly heartbreaking. •••
12 years 6 months ago
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mi-16evil, don't forget that the IMDb 250 only counts votes from "regular voters," hence it's 8.5 rating is actually much lower than the arithmetic mean of 9.2 and will often neglect votes from those who sign up simply to spam. Has there been some level of voter manipulation? Possibly, but I'd argue that it's also possible that many have actually loved the film that much. At least the reviews coming out of Venice and Telluride suggest so.
12 years 6 months ago
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A Separation just played at the Telluride Film Festival, and Jeffrey Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere had this to say about it:

Jeffrey Wells wrote:
Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, a forthcoming Sony Classics release which won the Golden Bear at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival, is far and away the finest film I've seen at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival...and I didn't even see the first 40 minutes' worth. But soon after I slipped into the Chuck Jones theatre early yesterday afternoon I knew I was in the presence of something genuine, compassionate, complex and unflinching. This Iranian film is affecting and profound in a way that transcends nationality and culture and any other obstacle you can think of.


Indeed, the anticipation is building with every beaming review.
12 years 6 months ago
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Heads up: Amazon UK lists A Separation's DVD release date as October 24, 2011.
12 years 6 months ago
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Well said, ThyCaptain. Many consider Iranian cinema to be of the highest regard. Iranian films have won awards at almost every major film festival (including the top prize for A Separation at Berlin this year). In addition, Abbas Kiarostami is consistently ranked as one of the best contemporary directors by a multitude of critics and cinephiles.

I gather some people often have an initial reaction of "low quality" when thinking about "a film from Iran" (or Turkey, for that matter), but these are not poor countries. Iran has the 26th largest economy in the world (and Turkey is 17th). Undermining the quality of the cinema from these countries only adds to the level of ignorance that the West (especially America, since we're so used to the being overexposed to Hollywood) embodies.
12 years 7 months ago
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For those confused by why certain well-respected films are so "low" on this list, please keep in mind #1-#25 consists of the 1908-1957 list, and #26-#100 is the 1958-2000 list. In other words, Andrei Rublev is actually the #1 film on the 1958-2000 poll.
12 years 7 months ago
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From what I gather, IMDb's classification of "Independent" simply means the film was not directly financed by one of the large film studios. Hence, you can see the presence of a few "big name" movies such as The Big Lebowski (which came from PolyGram when it was still owned by Philips and not Universal) and Seven (which came from New Line Cinema when it was a subsidiary of TBS even though TBS was owned by Time Warner, whose primary studio was Warner Bros). Dances with Wolves was produced by Tig Productions, which is Kevin Costner's own studio.
12 years 7 months ago
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The anger over this film being on so many lists without having been released theatrically is equally as irrational as so-called fanboys voting it 10s across the board.
12 years 7 months ago
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olem92, each category has a different number of required votes. For Action, it's 1,000. For Comedy, it's 5,000. For Film-Noir, it's only 200. From what I gather, these minimums change over time depending on how many films and votes exist in each category. However, it may also depend on the ratio of votes-per-film, as Drama, which should theoretically be the widest of categories, only requires 1,000 as of now.
12 years 7 months ago
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ltarex, understanding the system helps. The decade lists need a minimum of 5,000 votes, and generally, it takes quite a while for smaller, independent films as well as foreign films to reach that number. In good time, this list will change drastically. For example, Lee Chang-dong's Poetry, my favorite film of the decade (so far), has only 1,470 votes even with a limited release in the United States and abroad. But if it stays at its 7.7 rating when it breaks 5,000 votes, it'll enter the list at around #25.
12 years 7 months ago
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Well deserved!
12 years 10 months ago
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While the up-voting initially did its job of bringing attention to the film, nobody likes being manipulated. That's exactly why the film is now being unfairly downvoted. In the end, vote on films you've seen and rate them what you feel they deserve. That's the only way to keep the system "fair." I realize this is an ideal thought, but if we each do our part, we can help streamline the process instead of being part of the problem.
12 years 11 months ago
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Gershwin, "completely unknown" is a bit of a stretch as it just won the top prize at Berlinale. However, I'd imagine it comes down slowly as it opens in countries other than Iran (including France in June and the UK in July). Then again, there's always a possibility that it really is that good.
12 years 11 months ago
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This is the English language version of The Blue Angel. Below is a link to the more popular German version.
13 years ago
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http://www.icheckmovies.com/movie/der+blaue+engel/
13 years ago
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Fantastic work. Love the ease with which it imports. Curious if the box art will show up at any time?
13 years 3 months ago
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Swiz, it looked like some people are quite trigger happy.
14 years ago
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As a fan of Korean Cinema, I've been trying to find a list of the "greatest" films from Korea but am having no luck. Can anyone else help?
14 years ago

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