Non-English Films - Round Four! [Deadline March 7] - Games

Muslim-Bigfoot

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

19loveless91 wrote:

I like most of these... Shame for A Separation though...

There's been a couple dozen better movies than A Separation coming out of just Iran (including Farhadi's own first two movies, Basho, Where's the friend's home [my absolute favorite], taste of cherry, children of heaven etc.) so it not making it into the top 8 of all-time is hardly a surprise for me. It was an average movie (screaming at you and then acting like it was very subtle; it also uses the same exact narrative strategy as Elli so while watching it I thought it was just derivative) that got blown up because of politico-social situation (much like this year's Oscar nominee Mustang which is also an average movie; all I thought during watching it was that this director is not a fan of movies lol. She made so many rookie mistakes; also had nothing on Turkey's own submission, Sivas, or a pigeon . . . for instance; but a tale of dog-fighting with a boy and his dog (esp. since it has no real plot) is not gonna get noticed; Ironically Sivas was a much better commentary on women's condition in rural Turkey compared to Mustnag while not having any main woman characters).
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"I feel like for the last two years there’s been sort of a sonic evolution happening and I’ve been experimenting more and more."

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

4a: Persona
4b: Stalker
4c: Last Year at Marienbad
4d: The Mirror

19loveless91
mag. druž. inf

Muslim-Bigfoot wrote:

There's been a couple dozen better movies than A Separation coming out of just Iran (including Farhadi's own first two movies, Basho, Where's the friend's home [my absolute favorite], taste of cherry, children of heaven etc.) so it not making it into the top 8 of all-time is hardly a surprise for me. It was an average movie (screaming at you and then acting like it was very subtle; it also uses the same exact narrative strategy as Elli so while watching it I thought it was just derivative) that got blown up because of politico-social situation (much like this year's Oscar nominee Mustang which is also an average movie; all I thought during watching it was that this director is not a fan of movies lol. She made so many rookie mistakes; also had nothing on Turkey's own submission, Sivas, or a pigeon . . . for instance; but a tale of dog-fighting with a boy and his dog (esp. since it has no real plot) is not gonna get noticed; Ironically Sivas was a much better commentary on women's condition in rural Turkey compared to Mustnag while not having any main woman characters).

I thought Mustang was very solid, but not really any more than Virgin Suicides in a different background.

As for Iranian cinema, I thought A Separation was an upgrade on all of Farhadi's earlier films that I've seen (even if it's not necessarily wholly new and I do love the three of them). I did think it was a tad more subtle than those and an excellent commentary on human condition.

From those other that you mention, I thought Where's The Friend's Home was not the best film in the "Koker trilogy" (maybe because I'm a sucker for meta cinema and I found the other two more satisfying - also the reason that Close-Up is still my Kiarostami movie of choice) and Majidi is a tad over-sentimental (that's the movie with that out of nowhere running competition scene at the end, right?) for my liking, but none of these films are bad at all...

Muslim-Bigfoot

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Majidi's movies are def over-sentimental but it all just fits with everything else of his style. When you cast amateur children and get brilliant innocent acting from them you have the right to be over-sentimental. It's not like it's a hollywood oversimplified biopic or something. Also, have you seen Kiarostami's documentary about schoolchildren? That one is so good. Don't remember the name but you can google that. Also there's Reza MirKarimi's So Close, So Far; def watch that one too, if you're interested.
_________________
"I feel like for the last two years there’s been sort of a sonic evolution happening and I’ve been experimenting more and more."

undefined

4a: Persona vs. Breathless
4b: Spirited Away vs. Stalker
4c: Last Year at Marienbad vs. The 400 Blows
4d: The Mirror vs. Amelie

all y'all voting for Amelie over The Mirror are just...

Satie

4a: Persona vs. Breathless
4b: Spirited Away vs. Stalker
4c: Last Year at Marienbad vs. The 400 Blows
4d: The Mirror vs. Amelie

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

My favorite Kiarostami movie is Like Someone in Love, and I'm convinced that the greatest Iranian film ever made is Panahi's The Mirror. A Separation is still unquestionably a masterpiece, though.

cestuneblague
Edgy to the Choir

Location: MA/FL

dividesbyzero wrote:

4a: Persona vs. Breathless
4b: Spirited Away vs. Stalker
4c: Last Year at Marienbad vs. The 400 Blows
4d: The Mirror vs. Amelie

all y'all voting for Amelie over The Mirror are just...

I guess there's one of those for everybody *cough*lastyearatmarienbad*cough*

Surprisingly, at least personally, these were all pretty easy decisions, though still have only seen about 1/4 of the two movies in 4b so the ballot will likely stay incomplete.