1/28 - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Feature-length animated films have never been shown at movie night. The closest one is Austin's Cat Soup, a 34-minute OVA from Japan (which i like a lot). So that is one of the reason why I picked My Neighbor Totoro.

Hayao Miyazaki is one the of the most (if not THE most) important and acclaimed animated filmmaker in the world. His films are often built on humanistic and ecological themes with creative and unique imageries. In Miyazaki films, there are no smart-ass cute kids, there are no good vs. evil, there are no girls awaiting to be rescued, there are no sugar-coated fantasies. His films are about honest portrayal of children and relationships, the alarm of human weaknesses but also the importance of hope and redemption. His storytelling ability transcends the boundaries of the perceived limits of animation. Miyazaki is the first and ever filmmaker to win a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival with an animated feature (Spirited Away).

Except his first directional effort, I've seen all of his films. In fact, my first experience in a cinema is watching Miyazaki's "Nausicca of The Valley of The Wind". I love all his films. So it was hard for me to pick. Spirited Away is an easy choice, but Rory has seen it already (even so I highly recommend it because it has all the best qualities of all his films). I decided to pick My Neighbor Totoro for a few reasons. First, the film is set in post war Japan. It is able to illustrate the culture of Japan at that time without providing any exotic elements for western audience to focus on. Second, though it may be billed as a family/children's movie, it is not a typical children's film. To quote from allmovie.com, "some scenes portray the very real-life fears of being alone at night at a bus stop and being separated from an ill loved one. There are also some humorous bits that reveal a careful observation of children, as well as some genuinely inspiring moments in keeping with the ecological themes Miyazaki frequently returns to." And third, I love the movie.

There are a lot of assumptions and stereotypes when it comes to animation. And I hope this film will show that a animated film can be very good without being dragged by kiddie cliches or have to be obscure to be cool.

Black people

I was thinking since you guys have such boners over a themed month, maybe February could be a black directors month, since it's also black history month. Maybe cheesy, but it seems like a nice fit.

Also, Josh Nolan, who's been to a few movie nights, is interested in hosting sometime. He's got a few films he repeatedly tells me to show, and wants to host, but always tells me too late. Would you guys be adverse to going over to his place one of these Sundays? I'll work out with him when a good time would be.

2006- The Year of Mexican Cinema

No matter you like their films or not, there is little doubt 2006 was a great year for Mexican filmmakers. Leading the way is Babel, which has been honored by a lot of awards already and is now the top contender in America's big prize (aka the Oscars). Babel's screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga also wrote "The Three Burials of Melquiadas Estrada", a very fine film which did not gain a lot of attention in North America (it's technically 2005, but I'll include it as 2006). Alfonso Cuaron's follow-up after his success with Harry Potter was "Children Of Men", a movie that received a decent dose of accalim and box office. I'm sure we'll see more of Cuaron's presence in American cinema. He also produced an independent mexican movie "Duck Season", which quietly came and go in American theaters. Let's hope "Duck Season" is a glimpse of what we can expect from the young mexican filmmakers in the future. And of course, Guillermo Del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" is the biggest hit right now. The hype is big, but this genre-blender is not to be missed (even speaking as a CGI-movie-hater).

As I've told Rory, I was not satisfied with the quality of movies in 2006. But here are my favorites:

Duck Season
The Three Burials of Melquiadas Estrada
Little Miss Sunshine
Bubble
49 Up
Volver
Pan's Labyrinth

(Babel and Letters From Iwo Jima are decent films, but I just don't like them as much as the ones above)

Movies I missed and I am open to see:
Little Children
Half Nelson (i hope it's not a Garden State Deja Vu)
Deliver Us From Evil
The Last King of Scotland
Jesus Camp
The Good German

movies I'm not interested in seeing are: The Queen (modern monarchs are just stupid leeches of society, sorry), Dreamgirls (Eddie Murphy's oscar nod could be a sign of apocalypse) The Departed (I hate remakes, especially the ones of a foreign movie a couple years old)

What are your favorites? (well, i know rory's)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

well gang, as of today it's officially been a year since our first sunday movie night... and what a year it's been! full of ups and downs, highs and lows - but overall we've been very blessed to have seen some really good movies...

i thought, just out of curiousity, we should all post what each of our favorite movie(s) of the year was/were.. the catch is it can't have been something you'd already seen...

i'll start.. mine were:
In the Mood for Love (7/9)
and
L'Atalante (11/12)

Letters from Iwo Jima?

i'm gonna try to see Letters from Iwo Jima on friday at Angelika...
i know seeing a movie on opening night usually isn't a good idea, but if anyone wants to join me let me know... i'll probably get tickets early for the latest possible showing (because there'll probably be less of a crowd)
so who's in?

democracy in action

I want to see a Hitchcock film that I have not yet seen this Sunday. Ideally I would like to pick one that:
(A) you are enthusiastic about
and / or
(B) you have never seen before.

The choices are:
Strangers on a Train
Notorious
Rebecca
The 39 Steps

Cast your vote now.

Sun. Jan. 21

I spoke with Rob Arcos at that store "Movies" on Richmond and he is ordering a copy of the 1927 F.W. Murnau film "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" on DVD to rent for the store. I've been wanting to see it for a while but Netlix doesn't have it. Unfortunately, it won't arrive before this Sunday so I'm gonna have to find an alternative for this week. However, I plan on selecting it for my next pick or selecting it for my "silent film" pick if we decide to do that theme, which I think would be a cool theme to do. Personally, I'd like to do African-American directors next. I liked the women directors theme and think we should continue to do themes every once in a while.

See you at my place on Sunday.

Rory

I don't think Rory is visiting the site.

So I think this would be a nice place to do some Rory-bashing.

Feel free, fellows.

1/14: Elevator to the Gallows

it's getting more and more difficult to pick movies that nobody's seen... hopefully this is one - if so, we'll watch it at my place on sunday..



ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS
1957, directed by Louis Malle

In his mesmerizing debut feature, twenty-four-year-old director Louis Malle brought together the beauty of Jeanne Moreau, the camerawork of Henri Decaë, and a now legendary score by Miles Davis. A touchstone of the careers of both its star and director, Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud) is a richly atmospheric thriller of murder and mistaken identity unfolding over one restless Parisian night.
-criterionco.com

Possible Themes?

I'm not sure whether the "women directors month" thing was enjoyable to everyone, or if you guys would be interested in having themed months in the future - possibly every third month or something so that people can still choose whatever movie they want 2/3 of the time...

anyway, if you guys are interested in continuing it, let's decide on some themes here... I was thinking we could possibly shoot for March that way we get two regular picks in before... of course, we could do it sooner if you guys want to...

some themes I think may be cool/fun:
*movies where the title has a number in it (i.e. Catch 22, The Third Man, 21 Grams) - this came up because I want to show the third man and it got me thinking about how many movies have numbers in the title
*films by african-american directors
*silent films
*films set in the same city or country (i.e. films set in New York, Paris, London, Rome, etc.)