Fantasia (1940)
#8 on my Top 100 List
The things that Disney and Stokowski (the conductor who was a part of the creative drive behind the movie) came up with for this film are mind-blowing. The Nutcracker is shown through seasons changing. The Rite of Spring follows the formation of Earth and the reign of the dinosaurs. The Pastoral Symphony is done with Greek mythology. A Night on Bald Mountain is paired with Ave Maria! And of course, Mickey Mouse axe-murders zombie broomsticks in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I love this movie because it's done backwards from how music is normally used in a film. Usually a scene is shot and edited and then music is written to score the film. In this, they used the music as inspiration to create a visual that matched it. It's perfect. It's also beautifully drawn. Forget about the wretched sequel they tried to make - just watch the original and bask in the wonder.
My Netflix rating: 5 stars
Showing posts with label Experimental. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Experimental. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
September 5, 2009
Sin City (2005)
Some people loved this heavily-stylized movie and some people hated it. I really liked it. I think that the ways that Robert Rodriguez played with special effects, light and especially color in order to make this look like an animated graphic novel that just happened to include real actors worked very well. The dialogue is pretty clunky, but I think that that was intentional in order to keep with the graphic novel theme. The lines sound like they would be okay if you were to read them, just not say them aloud. It's incredibly disturbing and violent - I can never look at Elijah Wood the same way ever again - but it doesn't feel gratuitous because that's what the story is about. Also, seeing Rory Gilmore with a gun is just weird.
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
Some people loved this heavily-stylized movie and some people hated it. I really liked it. I think that the ways that Robert Rodriguez played with special effects, light and especially color in order to make this look like an animated graphic novel that just happened to include real actors worked very well. The dialogue is pretty clunky, but I think that that was intentional in order to keep with the graphic novel theme. The lines sound like they would be okay if you were to read them, just not say them aloud. It's incredibly disturbing and violent - I can never look at Elijah Wood the same way ever again - but it doesn't feel gratuitous because that's what the story is about. Also, seeing Rory Gilmore with a gun is just weird.
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
Sunday, August 2, 2009
August 1, 2009
Grindhouse (2007)
Thank God for Netflix! This movie, originally one three hour theatrical event, was split into its two parts - Planet Terror and Death Proof - for its DVD release, thus negating the entire point of the movie. But Netflix, in its infinite wisdom, offers the original theatrical double-feature version through its watch instantly feature, so I was able to see it as it was intended. I feel like this was an experiment that failed because it was misunderstood. People complained that the movies were bad. Of course they were bad! That was the point. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino were paying an homage to the grisly, graphic films that used to show in "grindhouse" movie theaters back in the day, doing so by making grisly, graphic, poorly edited films. One's about zombies (my favorite of the two) and the other's about a stuntman gone psycho who runs down unsuspecting women with his jacked-up car. They're both bloody and vicious and hold nothing back, but it's all part of the fun. Also, the made up trailers are fantastic and add the perfect shudder/cringe element to the whole overall experience.
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
Thank God for Netflix! This movie, originally one three hour theatrical event, was split into its two parts - Planet Terror and Death Proof - for its DVD release, thus negating the entire point of the movie. But Netflix, in its infinite wisdom, offers the original theatrical double-feature version through its watch instantly feature, so I was able to see it as it was intended. I feel like this was an experiment that failed because it was misunderstood. People complained that the movies were bad. Of course they were bad! That was the point. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino were paying an homage to the grisly, graphic films that used to show in "grindhouse" movie theaters back in the day, doing so by making grisly, graphic, poorly edited films. One's about zombies (my favorite of the two) and the other's about a stuntman gone psycho who runs down unsuspecting women with his jacked-up car. They're both bloody and vicious and hold nothing back, but it's all part of the fun. Also, the made up trailers are fantastic and add the perfect shudder/cringe element to the whole overall experience.
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
Monday, June 15, 2009
June 14, 2009
Rope (1948)
I adore Hitchcock. You should be prepared for there to be several more of his films in the future. This one is almost experimental in that it's a story told in real time (an hour of screen time equals an hour in the characters' lives) and is shot in a series of continuous shots to make the audience feel as though they were in the room with the characters. As such, we get a lot of mundane action, like characters eating appetizers, that isn't normally shown. When the film needed to be changed in the camera, the shot focuses on the blackness of the back of a character's jacket in order to incorporate the blackout into the long shot. There are a couple of straight cuts, but according to Wikipedia, this is where the reel would have had to be changed in a 1940s era movie theater. This story of the "perfect murder" is full of subtext, most often recognized for the implication that the two murderers, Brandon and Phillip, are also lovers.
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
I adore Hitchcock. You should be prepared for there to be several more of his films in the future. This one is almost experimental in that it's a story told in real time (an hour of screen time equals an hour in the characters' lives) and is shot in a series of continuous shots to make the audience feel as though they were in the room with the characters. As such, we get a lot of mundane action, like characters eating appetizers, that isn't normally shown. When the film needed to be changed in the camera, the shot focuses on the blackness of the back of a character's jacket in order to incorporate the blackout into the long shot. There are a couple of straight cuts, but according to Wikipedia, this is where the reel would have had to be changed in a 1940s era movie theater. This story of the "perfect murder" is full of subtext, most often recognized for the implication that the two murderers, Brandon and Phillip, are also lovers.
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
Sunday, April 12, 2009
April 11, 2009
Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
The closest I can come to trying to describe this movie is to call it a live-action version of Fantasia. In Fantasia, Disney took pre-existing classical music and animated stories to go with it. In this, filmmaker Godfrey Reggio takes images of the earth and humanity's existance on it and, through both slow and fast-motion, sets the pictures to Phillip Glass's haunting score. There are no characters, no dialogue, and no plot, but it manages to tell a story anyway. This (along with Fantasia, if you want to count it as that) is one of, if not the only experimental film I like. It's part of a trilogy (followed by Powaqatsi and Naqoyqatsi) but I don't find them nearly as effective. The title is a Hopi word meaning "life out of balance."
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
The closest I can come to trying to describe this movie is to call it a live-action version of Fantasia. In Fantasia, Disney took pre-existing classical music and animated stories to go with it. In this, filmmaker Godfrey Reggio takes images of the earth and humanity's existance on it and, through both slow and fast-motion, sets the pictures to Phillip Glass's haunting score. There are no characters, no dialogue, and no plot, but it manages to tell a story anyway. This (along with Fantasia, if you want to count it as that) is one of, if not the only experimental film I like. It's part of a trilogy (followed by Powaqatsi and Naqoyqatsi) but I don't find them nearly as effective. The title is a Hopi word meaning "life out of balance."
My Netflix rating: 4 stars
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