Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4493
here you go jay. go nuts. your intelligence astounds me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Au … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_En … nd_winners
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fr … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_It … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_La … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Po … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sc … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sp … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_As … d_nominees

this year ALONE, i.e. in the last few day's media coverage, there have been two putative 'furors' because a prominent latin american actress and that french chick from amour were not recognized. SUCH AN AMERICAN AFFAIR. it would almost be funny if your tone wasn't adamant and smartass. i had a point. you just derailed the conversation for 5 posts advertising nothing but your complete stupidity.
Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5597|London, England

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

here you go jay. go nuts. your intelligence astounds me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Au … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_En … nd_winners
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fr … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_It … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_La … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Po … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sc … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sp … d_nominees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_As … d_nominees

this year ALONE, i.e. in the last few day's media coverage, there have been two putative 'furors' because a prominent latin american actress and that french chick from amour were not recognized. SUCH AN AMERICAN AFFAIR. it would almost be funny if your tone wasn't adamant and smartass. i had a point. you just derailed the conversation for 5 posts advertising nothing but your complete stupidity.
Ok, you win, I'm wrong. I still don't care.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4493
well then you don't have to post, do you? i post something you don't like, because it offends your prissy little american-intellectual-self-fancying image, and then you incessantly and idiotically 'argue' against me for 5 pages, about something you painfully, obviously know absolutely NOTHING about. why? to try and retain a whimsical impression you had of yourself? american film is shit. spielberg makes dirge. accusing the oscars of lacking 'integrity' because SPR didn't get best film is laughable. the oscars have perfect integrity - just they don't have any pretension beyond being a rotating wheel of celebrity hype and adoration. it's not serious about film. if it was, plenty of other films - films i listed in my first post - would have won. and they weren't excluded because they aren't "american". you are just a blithering idiot. stop interjecting with your bone-headed tone in discussions you clearly have zero business in.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|7011|PNW

AussieReaper wrote:

You're great at attacking the straw man argument, but my point was that Saving Private Ryan was a better movie than Shakespeare in Love.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,273037,00.html

But was it really a better movie, and simply just wore out voters? Ask me what I'd rather watch, and it won't be Private Ryan. I've got to sit through Normandy invasions enough every other time a WW2 movie comes out without sitting through the same one twice.

Justifying the choice by saying Spielberg can't keep winning because it's Spielberg, just reinforces my point that the Oscars lack integrity.
Giving a second Newberry Medal to a children's author who re-releases the same book with a few changed names and plot points would seem disingenuous.
Shocking
sorry you feel that way
+333|6238|...

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

1998 saw movies released by ingmar bergman, ken loach, lars von trier, angelopoulous, and terry gilliam (non-filmies will know that one: fear and loathing in las vegas). to put spielberg on a cinematic pedestal with any of those directors is fucking funny.
well to be fair spielberg has made some pretty great films. He's not a bad or mediocre director by any stretch.
inane little opines
13urnzz
Banned
+5,830|6736

i especially liked Indiana Jones
AussieReaper
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
+5,761|6392|what

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

AussieReaper wrote:

You're great at attacking the straw man argument, but my point was that Saving Private Ryan was a better movie than Shakespeare in Love.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,273037,00.html

But was it really a better movie, and simply just wore out voters? Ask me what I'd rather watch, and it won't be Private Ryan. I've got to sit through Normandy invasions enough every other time a WW2 movie comes out without sitting through the same one twice.

Justifying the choice by saying Spielberg can't keep winning because it's Spielberg, just reinforces my point that the Oscars lack integrity.
Giving a second Newberry Medal to a children's author who re-releases the same book with a few changed names and plot points would seem disingenuous.
Equating a director / producer to a children's book writer.

Good one chief.
https://i.imgur.com/maVpUMN.png
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|7011|PNW

No, I'm equating awards for doing the same thing with other awards for doing the same thing.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,815|6345|eXtreme to the maX

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Uzique wrote:

the only oscar nominated film i've seen all the way through is django
Argo is a hunk of shit - totally unexemplary.
You walked out of the cinema, watched part of a download on your laptop, or are basing your opinion on other people's opinion?
the second.
You can't judge a film unless you've seen it in the cinema - IMO, there's enough difference between a cinema and a 60" plasma TV to change the character of a film, never mind a laptop.

Unless you're going solely on the wordiness of the script, in which case you're a dick.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2013-02-27 00:57:10)

Fuck Israel
Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4493
yes dilbert, yes, because i have two literature degrees i only ever watch & appreciate films based on the especial "wordiness of the[ir] scripts" . that's the only culture humanities students can appreciate - excessive wordplay!!!! oh-so-clever wordplay!!!

i'm not even going to bother challenging the patently ludicrous assertion that all film somehow 'must' be watched on a cinema-sized screen to be 'understood'. perhaps for a certain brand of hollywood film, more properly called a spectacle than a film - i.e. an audio-visual tour de force, rather shallow on characterisation or plot or theme - yeah, i'll agree that sort of film is diminished when not seen on a cinema screen. the 'avatars' of this world mostly fall into that category. but argo? a drama? a cinema screen experience for an ordinary dramatic film makes about as much sense as saying you have to see a shakespeare play at the globe theatre, or that you have to read ulysses in its high-quality vergé d'arches print edition. you can assess almost every aesthetic and dramatic aspect of a film without having to be slurping on a $10 watered-down cola and listening to the guy a few rows behind you snack on his girlfriend. it's ludicrous. and all this coming from the guy that instantly dismisses dance music, THE model of a musical-form/genre that IS designed for a specific environment and sound-system culture - i.e. it's terrible to listen to on a laptop/ipod. it's too much.

you really are just an idle contrarian. i would say i've seen roughly 80% of the world's 'great' film away from the cinema/art-house theatre (though i have especially made trips for certain screenings of old films, it must be said; but these reasons are not really because i thought seeing it away from that environment was 'lesser'; it was more like a form of culture tourism) - and the different environs or smaller screen-size have never bothered my enjoyment/pleasure/nourishment before. a great film is a great film; a bad film is a bad film. only the very worst category of film is actually improved by the setting, or technological 'wow' factor of loud sound/explosions and a large canvas.

but, then again, 'spectacle' and superficial impression-making do seem to be mostly what you go in for: in music, film, all art, really...

Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-02-27 02:04:07)

Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,815|6345|eXtreme to the maX
So why do people still bother with cinema, and not just watch everything on their iPads? Or why do people bother with making films the hard way when all you need for youtube is a 1080p camera?
To say it makes no difference is absurd, they're made for the big screen and thats where they should be seen.

Your book analogy is lame, Ulysses would be the same in braille or via Kindle, cinema is quite different - the delivery is important, more so than the typeface the printer picked.

(I haven't dismissed dance music, I like dance music, just not your idea of dance music)

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2013-02-27 02:58:44)

Fuck Israel
Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4493
'the medium is the message', yada yada, boring grad school cliche. to an extent, yes, you need to be able to see a film on a certain level of technology. why is the cinema as a destination still popular? this has very little to do with actual film-consumption, and more to do with the status of the cinema as a leisure activity, deriving from its historical inception as a middle-brow arena for middle-class people to spend their time consuming new emergent forms of middling entertainment (nominally the music-hall). cinema is just an entrenched part of cultural consumption - that's the whole experience of cinema: from the eating of popcorn and snacks, to the taking of friends/dates, to the 'setting'. the film itself, as an artistic expression, has very little to do with the setting. there is nothing intrinsic or essential that you get from a cinema setting that you cannot get from the same film in a home setting. again, in very recent memory i have set aside an exception with the 'techno-wank' genre of spectacle films: 3d pointless explosion fests, avatar, irritating fps experiments, etc. these are obviously technologically-minded films with an explicit and additional requirement to be seen in a cinema to be truly 'experienced'. but do i need to watch a bergman in the cinema to be affected by it? to appreciate it as great art? no. ludicrous assertion. the fact you point to the cinema as a leisure-time activity still being popular as some sort of logical 'proof' of its irreducibility w/r/t the artform, is hilarious. major major leap in thought; it does not follow.
does anyone use a site like mediahound to find movies? http://www.mediahound.com/discover/
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|7011|PNW

Never used it. I have a couple Moviehound "guides" though.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|7011|PNW

Dilbert_X wrote:

You can't judge a film unless you've seen it in the cinema
I can and I do.

Unless you're going solely on the wordiness of the script, in which case you're a dick.
Isn't script like, you know, a significant part of any feature film? Enough that shitty dubs throw me off of foreign films if I try to watch them that way.

IMO, there's enough difference between a cinema and a 60" plasma TV to change the character of a film, never mind a laptop.
The cinema experience has nostalgic value, at least for me. I still go because one, I enjoy it and two, I want to support box office numbers of movies I want to see keep being made. That said, I'm perfectly capable of being absorbed in a film just as much on a 60" plasma TV, 30" CRT, 26" LCD or even 11" laptop. I've even sat through a couple UMD movies at a hotel on my PSP. Did the environment really diminish what I took away of the movies? No.

Theaters aren't all roses. If you don't go at the right time, enjoy squealing babies, little kids kicking the back of your seat and potheads who giggle at every sudden movement.
Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4493
the only true benefit that a 'cinema trip' has for the enjoyment of the actual film is all phenomenological and quite abstract - it's in the 'experience', the 'trip', the purposive 'setting' and the attention/ritual benefits it accords the film. however, there is nothing to say someone cannot engage with a film with as much full-attention and reverence in a home setting. dilbert is just associating the focus and purposiveness of a cinema trip with somehow that trip becoming an essential part of a film's artistic structure. it isn't. that makes as much sense as saying all good books must be enjoyed in a scholarly library (or at the least a comfy armchair). it doesn't make sense. film is a visual art. film is moving images. you don't have to watch it in a cinema.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,815|6345|eXtreme to the maX
Pfft, you can't see the richness and detail of the cinematography, the nuances of the actors performance or even hear the depth of the speech - all of which are part of the craft of the film-maker - when you're looking at stick figures on a tiny screen and listening via a half-inch speaker.

If not then why didn't all the directors making films to satisfy their artistic urges use Super-8 or crayon flip-books?

Come on, you know this, its super-simple.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2013-02-28 02:27:09)

Fuck Israel
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|7011|PNW

Sorry, but that's nonsense.

Do we really need to sit in the front row and look up at the pores on actors' faces to get the gist of what emotions they're trying to convey or what the director intended? The best seats in the house sit you with your head as close to the center-center of the theater screen as possible, with a straight-on viewing angle. But guess what? At home, a TV can take up just as much of your vision since you're sitting closer to it than you do from a theater screen at a reasonable viewing angle.

You also have way more control over the experience at home than you do at the theater.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,815|6345|eXtreme to the maX
Depends, if the director intended you to see the pores on the actor's face and you're not because you're watching on your PSP then you're missing part of the effect aren't you?

And sometimes 'spectacle' is part of the intended effect and an integral part of a film, even if hipsters sneer at it for some reason.

I think I need to rewatch this in HD:

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2013-02-28 03:10:01)

Fuck Israel
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|7011|PNW

I guess what I'm getting at is this:

[    ] - visible area, cinema. seated rear center.
[    ] - visible area, large-screen LCD. across the living room.
[    ] - visible area, 22" LCD monitor. leaning back slightly in the chair.
[    ] - visible area, PSP. watching at portable gaming distance.

Larger screen at longer distance = smaller screen at shorter distance.

Now there are a number of things that keep me going to the theater, a couple of which I'd already mentioned. Another is that the seats at the remodeled Loews has giant cushy power recliners that are completely awesome. Another is that there's a Barnes & Noble nearby that I like to visit. Another is that I want to see some movies sooner than later.

Another reason is NOT that my home video experience is somehow woefully shitty by comparison.
Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4493

Dilbert_X wrote:

Depends, if the director intended you to see the pores on the actor's face and you're not because you're watching on your PSP then you're missing part of the effect aren't you?

And sometimes 'spectacle' is part of the intended effect and an integral part of a film, even if hipsters sneer at it for some reason.
this is such an inane post. you can tell you are straining to make an argument, because all of your counter-points are tortured reductio ad absurdum's. yes, it is unfortunate if you have to watch a film on a "PSP", or "stick figures on a tiny screen with a half-inch speaker". but nobody is making arguments for watching feature-length films on PSP screens, are they? make a real fucking argument, for christ's sake. stop setting up straw men and then burning them for your own satisfaction, ahead of time. there is a whole scale of technology (especially nowdays) between the 1930's-esque monopoly of the cinema reel to the home environment. what exactly is missing from a person watching a film on a large HDTV with hi-fi speakers? and where do you draw the line, or the crucial distinction, on this inane argument? where do you arbitrarily distinguish between a 'valid' film watching experience and a not-technologically-capable one? do you need the large canvas? perhaps you need the cigarette blotches? perhaps you need a folding chair? in arguing for what is 'essential' about film as an artform, you should be able to make a convincing argument for all of the extra-artistic/contextual elements of the cinema - as both location and as a trip/experience/ritual. you can't do that, though. it's too vague, too nebulous. that's because nothing inherent in the cinema is essential to film. i can watch my favourite films in good-quality on a decently sized monitor with more-than-adequate sound hardware. today, in 2013, this is even easier than ever, what with the downsizing in size and affordability of televisual technology. you could have maybe made an argument along these lines in 1950... but not now. 'film' as an artform has been brought resoundingly out of the arthouse cinema elite and the franchise-cinema blockbuster crowd. and it's a good job, too. it frees the artform of all sorts of economic constraints (only a small and affluent minority can reasonably afford to go and see every film that appeals to them in a franchised cinema).

as for "hipsters" disliking the spectacle... yawn. this is you being you to a boring extreme. again. what do hipsters have to do with a critique of the spectacle? the concept of the spectacle goes back in aesthetics for almost 200 years. were they hipsters in ruskin's day? whenever you talk about a subject you evidently know little about, you resort to these idiotic hipster comments. ditto with john galt - so you're keeping good company there, in this mightily intellectual debate. there's nothing hipsterish about distrusting spectacle, especially films that are ALL spectacle: they mask a complete lack of content and aesthetic/artistic merit with the ephemeral trickery of technological invention. i.e. explosions, 3d effects, silly novelties like that. there's nothing artistic or of real value in this - they just overwhelm the senses and cause a temporary impression (in both senses of the word). you feel short-changed when you leave the cinema, though. because it's just that: a fucking spectacle.
Benzin
Member
+576|6238
You're not discussing anything at all, though. You're on a soapbox. Jay is saying your points are irrelevant for him and he doesn't even actually engage you, yet you still write a wall of text that no one cares to read.

I have posted ratings in the thread. I don't do so regularly because I can't always find the time to sit down and watch a movie for a few hours. Curse of being extremely busy with work and uni and maintaining a household.

Sorry Uzi, but you make valid points on some topics, but far too often you stand up on your soapbox and dictate how culturally superior you are to all of us. It's old. Boring. I read the first few posts of your "discussion" (read: one-sided rant) and just scrolled past. Honestly, I wish you had some kind of an avatar or signature that stood out more so I could identify your posts faster and just scroll on by. Do us a favor and take care of that, mkay?

If you want people to actually engage in a discussion with you rather than just ignore your rants, might I suggest a bit of tact? Certainly you are well spoken, well read and well educated, but you don't have what they call "the social skills".

Respond as you will, I know it's in your nature. I imagine some jab at being a fat, uncultured, uneducated American or some variation thereof will be in there. Perhaps a call-out on my moving to Europe and now thinking I'm better'n everyone else. Maybe. Less likely. More likely you'll just open your thesaurus and just spew whatever hateful vitriol just happens to be rolling around in that noggin of yours. Have fun.

EDIT: the first rant was with Jay. You had a few posts with Dilbert. Scrolled right past 'em because it looked like another rant. Now I'm done.

Last edited by CapnNismo (2013-02-28 09:41:27)

Benzin
Member
+576|6238
Not sure if any of you have seen it, but Larry Crowne was quite good (I know it's a bit old, but it's been on my watchlist for a while now). A nice "feel good" flick (not sure if that's a good description at all, though) with plenty of light moments in there. Stars Tom Hanks, directed by Tom Hanks, written by Tom Hanks. Good movie and even Julia Roberts has a few good moments. Bryan Cranston's little bits were hilarious. If you like laughing at stereotypes, it's a fun movie.
Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4493
yeah arguing for the oscars being about more than american films, and about the cinema being non-essential to film appreciation, is really a 'culturally superior rant'.

and oh yeah, let's not bring the discussion of films in the film thread down with too much talk about cinemas. let's review a fucking romcom with tom hanks and julia roberts.
skyfall 7/10 def a slow one... and it's all about 'the end' so it's depressing. Javier Bardem in this movie was a great bad guy, i can't stop thinking about how the yellow hair and brow look so bizarre on him. Spoiler (highlight to read):
the end of the movie as M and the caretaker slipped away from the burning mansion they used flashlights that gave them away. The fuck. Why did they use flashlights if they are on the run?  Also, it was never revealed HOW Bond lived after being shot off the top of a train above a deep canyon. Did anyone get that?

Last edited by Kimmmmmmmmmmmm (2013-02-28 10:36:46)

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