Change Your Image
lhnrlmitz
Top 10 excluding The Godfather
Random orders :
Persona
Le Samourai
Witness for the Prosecution
Synecdoche, New York
And Justice For All
Goodfellas
Santa Sangre
Dog Day Afternoon
L.A Confidential
Atonement < extremely underrated
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Nuit et brouillard (1956)
I couldn't rate
Night and Fog documents the tragedy from the perspective of a Holocaust survivor, it pulls you straight into the mood with its poetic narrative, its curiosity arousing opening shot of an abandoned concentration camp and its depressing score.
The infamous Holocaust was known to almost everyone through obscured history teachings and heroic war films that didn't leave me with the impact "Night and Fog" did. We are constantly reminded in films and books that 6 million Jews were massacred and other atrocities the Nazis committed but what impact did it really had? To me, little to non, maybe with just a passing thought "Hitler is a real psycho".
After watching Night and Fog, then i did finally realized the cruelty that had happened, blockbuster films doesn't show you that, history books couldn't paint the picture. The raw stock images and footages used were gruesome, Stretched to my 16:9 monitor, I was stared by a real corpse, witness bodies being bulldozed.... They didn't made me scared but empty, it was weird, indescribable.
We people living in this age are enjoying and entertained by WW2 exploits, Nazis and Hitler being destroyed over and over again in countless films, and us enjoying it, yes "justice" must be served and of cause we are also entertained to have them back as always to be our central villainous figure. This is awfully similar to how the Nazis influence their citizens into believing the Nazi's cause, I'm not saying that modern films of WW2 exploits are all propagandas because most of them are to milk money, yet they delivers the same kind of messages: " Our cause is honorable ", " We serve justice " " We are good and they evil "..... People may argue that the fact is they really are on the good side and films are portraying the fact but that's not the point, the point is what humans are capable of when exposed to all these ideologies, quote from the last stanza of Night and Fog "Are their faces really different from our own?". I couldn't cry nor am i enraged when this documentary completes its final stanza, just empty.
Balance (1989)
A thought provoking, surreal, dark and cold art film on our society.
The film is set on a balance board, with 5 human look-alike species living on it, the numbers behind their back is the only way distinguish between them. Each of them in order to not slip off from the board must accommodate with the other 4 to sustain balance. They moved to the end of the board and started fishing, one of them reeled up a box and it changes the "balance". The one who reeled it up wants to keep it for himself but a few curious others wants it too, and there's one of them who wanted just to stay on the board but got suckered into their conflict though they could've just shared it and retain the balance by positioning the chest to the middle. I guess it pretty much reflects on the society.
Too many wealth hogging rich selfish narcissistic assholes around.
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Way ahead, way way way way ahead.
I got to know this film from IMDb's "Similar movies, movies you may like" link, and what I'd expected was beyond my expectation. Way ahead of times editing and effect including "slow mo effect", brilliant score, haunting imagery and a captivating story-line in just 13mins.
The movie starts by introducing of the actress "Maya Deren" herself and the core elements of the story with an emphasized shot on each of them, and each item might symbolize something, we get flowers, a key, a knife in a loaf of bread, a telephone. After the introduction "Maya Deren" went up to a room, stopped the record player and the film went silent, leading me to believe that the film's previous source of music came from that record player. After switching off the record player Maya Deren seemingly took a nap and things get crazy when the record started playing again without manual assistance, or so i thought and Maya Deren meeting a cloak figure with a mirror for a face, like in a dream or an out of body experience, stuck in an endless loop as the story-progress, and ultimately leading to a brilliant conclusion.
Don't miss this.
La montaña sagrada (1973)
Look beyond Jowdorosky's craziness, and comprehend his intellect.
I had watched "The Holy mountain" a few years back and I've forgotten why and how I came across this film, for the "why" i meant, "The Holy Mountain" was made 20 years before I was born, and there, really wasn't any reason for me to watch it except for my boredom. But I am glad to have watched it, for it exposed me to the insight of art, "The Holy Mountain" became a definition of "Art" for me, and besides being "the" definition of "art" for me; "The Holy Mountain" had me questioning on the modern perception of "sanity", I used to have, and in fact many people still defines "insanity" if the action a person action or the thinking that person has, that does not relate to us or compromise with society, as an act of "insanity"; To think of it , even in retrospect , people have been defining "insanity", aforementioned. The definition of "sanity" should refer to a rationality of an individual; After watching "The Holy Mountain", I find the conclusion to the story, rational; The journey until the conclusion, surreal. The film and its imagery still lingers on my mind on a regular basis.
You will need some exposure to Christianity in order to understand the surface of the story, and anything beyond that, is up to your interpretation - my summary will consists of minor spoilers and some of my own interpretation; For the first 20mins , there is no dialogue, Jowdorosky bring us to a tour, a tour showcasing human's "insanity". During the tour, a scene with soldiers and man dancing in each other arm, struck me with a thought, is "insanity" conditional? Is it okay for people to be irrational for the sake of finding peace and sanity amidst chaos and insanity? After the tour , the main character(The Thief) a Christ-like figure, ventures into the surreal realm of the Alchemist. The Thief deemed the Alchemist as an adversary and attacks him, The Alchemist exhibits his powers and remove an alien substance that was seemingly the cause of The Thief's violent nature; The Alchemist then says to The Thief: "Do you want gold?" and The Thief replied "Yes", The Alchemist then made The Thief defecate into a container - Yes , you will watch him literally shitting, naked.The Alchemist then had The Thief go through a hellish process, sweat and tears are flowing out from The Thief, in order to transform the excrement into gold, an idiom for "working", maybe? and he said to the Thief: "You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold." . The quote made sense to me, humans sort of is, an excrement and we're working hard to turn into something worthy. The Thief is then introduced to 7 powerful humans who will accompany The Thief on his journey, and each of their introduction conveys an emphasised sin, personifying Christianity 7 deadly sins. The Thief, The Alchemist and the 7 sins then embarks on their journey to The Holy Mountain to obtain immortality,and will they attain immortality? Not spoiling it for you. I believe that Jowdorosky's conclusion to the film, is an important underlying message, but revealing that message will spoil the essence of the film, I'm not spoiling it, so watch it yourself!
I recommend this film to people who likes surreal imagery, because every frame is wallpaper worthy; people who have an open sense of humor, because religion mockery is always funny; and lastly, people who are bored out of their mind.
Inception (2010)
Same old sci fi remade with a bigger budget
dream in a dream in a dream = existenz planting an idea = what do you mean planting an idea is original . i can list bigger ideas other movies plant . THE MATRIX 1999 = planting the idea into everyone making them believe they are in reality . TOTAL RECALL 1990 = a false 2 week vacation memory has been planted in ARNOLD.
and for you guys that says dreams and virtual reality is different. wrong . what is presented in inception is a dream that looks like reality . a place that is constructed for the subject to feel real. if you wanna see a dream then watch paprika or the holy mountain .
a "dream that is constructed to feel real" and a "virtual reality" IS basically the SAME .
so what is new in inception ? NOTHING .
just some cool looking characters does not make a film good .