I don't know about you guys, but I've had it with super-strong little women who aren't me.

Buffy ,'Get It Done'


Buffista Movies 5: Development Hell  

A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


megan walker - Sep 16, 2006 12:20:00 pm PDT #4364 of 10001
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

Are the Red, Blue, White films considered to be French? Or Polish?
OMG, how could I have forgotten them? They're right there on the shelf! Love them. Despite Kieslowski, they are considered French productions both for financing and language reasons (although most of White is in Polish).


amych - Sep 16, 2006 12:28:44 pm PDT #4365 of 10001
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

(although most of White is in Polish).

Thank you! This explains why I've been sitting here wondering why I can't remember which language they were in even though I very clearly remember seeing them -- in France, in French, and yet somehow also with subtitles...


Vonnie K - Sep 16, 2006 12:40:34 pm PDT #4366 of 10001
Kiss me, my girl, before I'm sick.

I love Trois Couleurs trilogy. Rouge is one of my all time favourite flicks EVER. Definitely in my top ten.

Hmmm. I've seen about the 75% of films on Megan's students-approved list, but I have this weird resistance to the French new wave. I can take Louis Malle in small doses (I actually like his last two films the best -- his adaptation of Uncle Vanya and the brilliantly nasty Damage -- hmm, it happens that both of them are in English, so maybe that's irrelevant), and Truffaut is OK, but I CANNOT stand Godard and haven't watched any Melville. Oddly enough, I love Eric Rohmer, despite the the never-ending navel-gazing and the incessant talk that define his films. The end of Le Rayon Verte always makes me cry, for some reason.

One of the most affecting French films in my memory is Claude Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver, with Emmanuelle Beart and Daniel Auteuil, which is sparse and elegant and terribly wounding in a quiet way.


megan walker - Sep 16, 2006 1:20:57 pm PDT #4367 of 10001
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

I love City of Lost Children so much. I have no French, though. And I still haven't seen Delicatessen, somehow.

That's the great thing about Jeunet, he's so visual that the language barrier is not as great as with the more "talky" French movies, or comedies.


DavidS - Sep 16, 2006 1:59:32 pm PDT #4368 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

and Truffaut is OK, but I CANNOT stand Godard and haven't watched any Melville.

It should be noted that Melville is more of a precursor to the French new wave than a participant. He shares a similar interest in American genre (particularly crime/noir) with the New Wave directors, but his style is more old school. Bob le Flambeur makes a better double-feature with Dassin's Riffifi than it does with Breathless. (And Riffifi might be the best picture in that bunch although Breathless is certainly more significant).

megan, I was also fond of Diane Kurys' movies like Peppermint Soda and Cocktail Molotov. From the late seventies, early eighties. Also Coup de Foudre (which was released stateside as Entre Nous) starring Isabelle Huppert and Miou Miou.

La Lectrice also with Miou Miou was interesting.


Gris - Sep 16, 2006 2:47:50 pm PDT #4369 of 10001
Hey. New board.

Just saw The Crow for the first time ever (thanks TNT, even with your "that's flipping bullspit!" replacements!)

It's the gothiest goth goth in gothonia, huh?


IAmNotReallyASpring - Sep 16, 2006 3:15:22 pm PDT #4370 of 10001
I think Freddy Quimby should walk out of here a free hotel

One of the most affecting French films in my memory is Claude Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver, with Emmanuelle Beart and Daniel Auteuil, which is sparse and elegant and terribly wounding in a quiet way.

Sautet's 'Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud' is even more low-key, in a kind of the-characters-react-to-the-the-dramatic-moments-by-walking-down-the-street way.


§ ita § - Sep 16, 2006 3:21:40 pm PDT #4371 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I think my favourite foreign film is Jesu de Montreal. Except, I was living in Montreal when I saw it, so I'm not sure how foreign it was.


Atropa - Sep 16, 2006 3:26:44 pm PDT #4372 of 10001
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.

It's the gothiest goth goth in gothonia, huh?

Heh. Well, yes. That's the point, really. I think if I had to make a Goth DVD Starter Kit, it would include both Addams Family movies, Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Crow, and Gypsy 83. And maybe the original Dracula, just because. Or The Hunger.


Theodosia - Sep 16, 2006 3:29:43 pm PDT #4373 of 10001
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"

The Crow is a very good movie -- in some ways, I think it turned out better because the director had to retool a number of scenes because of Lee's tragic death.