Film/Video Discussion Thread - The Bear and Badger

Matt_82

Speak for yourself, old man.

davyK

Computer Chess

Bizarre offering on Mubi at the minute. Set around a fictional early late70s/early80s computer chess tournament.

At the start I wanted it to be real - there's amusing nerd smack talk etc. It starts getting weird though and strays into surrealism, but remains equally funny.

Some of the dialogue is technically grounded (inasmuch as I know about very early AI techniques applied to games with evaluation functions used against nodes of decision trees) which I found refreshing and it's nice for an old computer nerd like me to see some old hardware.

Has an experimental feel to it and I found out after watching it that quite a bit of it is improvised.

An interesting little film. Enjoyed it.

Tempy

Yeah that's a good one. Enjoyed it back in the day.

jdanielp

davyK wrote:

Computer Chess Bizarre offering on Mubi at the minute. Set around a fictional early late70s/early80s computer chess tournament.

Do you mean Mubi? Despite various misgivings I decided to take up a 50% off annual subscription following my trial, but Computer Chess is not currently available to watch for me (even as a rental).

davyK

It's under Mubi content as part of my Amazon Prime Sub.

it's "included in your MUBI subscription" according to Amazon Prime.

Odd.

nick_md

What film does this sound like it's from? It's killing me, some kinda 80s/90s fantasy or sci-fi horror where there's some kinda portal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWcDpvf57fA

Anyone? The bit from 6secs

nick_md

Got it

Spoiler:

jdanielp

davyK wrote:

It's under Mubi content as part of my Amazon Prime Sub. it's "included in your MUBI subscription" according to Amazon Prime. Odd.

I have a direct subscription with Mubi, not via Prime, but odd indeed that they have different content.

mistercrayon

Mubi recently opened up their thing to include their Fuller “library” which is bigger than their normal mode so it might have something to do with that.

jdanielp

I have access to the Library, which was part of the reason that I decided to subscribe.

davyK

Phantasm recorded off normal TV.

I remember seeing the trailers for this on TV as a kid and busting to see it. Cert. X back then of course. Heh. Has been a long time since I saw this - would have been on VHS in the 80s.

Not the greatest but there's some great ideas here. Bonkers film and intentionally funny in places.

In The Realm of the Senses Mubi

Gave up on this. Mad JP-porno film disguised as something else. I didn't hang around long enough to find out.

Raiziel

I remember seeing trailers for Phantasm in the eighties too. Abiding memory is of a silver ball with spikes hurtling through the air. Wanted to see it at the time, still haven’t gotten around to it.

Tempy

davyK wrote:

In The Realm of the Senses Mubi Gave up on this. Mad JP-porno film disguised as something else. I didn't hang around long enough to find out.

Studied this at uni, along with a bunch of the other Roman Porno/Pink film stuff. Interesting period of Japanese cinema. ITRotS is based on the true story of Sada Abe too

nick_md

Ai No Corrida (sp?)

Always fancied watching that.

Tempy

That's the one yea

g.man

davyK wrote:

In The Realm of the Senses Mubi Gave up on this. Mad JP-porno film disguised as something else. I didn't hang around long enough to find out.

Kow

Also remember the trailer for Phantasm on the tv, with the little knife ball. Was dying to see it but still haven't. Probably never will.

superflyninja

nick_md wrote:

Got it

Spoiler:

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Big Trouble In Little China.[/font]

hahahaha totally!!!!

regmcfly

Here's a weird question,

One of my friends is trying to write a blog post about how On The Waterfront and Invasion of the Body Snatchers tell the same but different stories about McCarthy and whilst I know about both and the movies I don't know the connections. Can someone educate me?

g.man

I'm not convinced that there's anything much that connects them directly really. I mean they both came out in the era of the McCarthy hearings, and there are obvious parallels with that in Waterfront's story (and production) regarding whistleblowers, but Body Snatchers was really just a neat sci-fi chiller that critics (understandably) read a lot more into than was intended by either those that wrote it or made the film, as it's subject matter could be read as an allegory for the perception of the "Red Menace" of those times.
I don't know much about either tbh, but it sounds a bit tenuous to me?

mistercrayon

The thing you have to take is that maybe the secret worries accidentally manifested into the tone of things.

The other thing is that culturally American films have always been about coding secret messages into film - smoking after a man and woman are breathless: shagging. Codes are in the DNA of American films to the point I think you can assume some level of secret messaging is the default rather than literalness.

Kow

I suppose that Body Snatchers could be read as the "they could be any of us" view of communism that was prevalent in the 50s. They look just like us but secretly they're reds. But then the last scene would be the wrong way round.

tin_robot

regmcfly wrote:

Here's a weird question, One of my friends is trying to write a blog post about how On The Waterfront and Invasion of the Body Snatchers tell the same but different stories about McCarthy and whilst I know about both and the movies I don't know the connections. Can someone educate me?

Hmmm.

(Spoilers for old films follow)

I suppose you can argue that both films essentially show an individual who is trying to retain their humanity/individualism whilst malevolent forces are trying to subsume him into their group. Both ultimately escape that fate and manage to warn the authorities, but at some cost to themselves - ending with a final act of support for their cause. (The hero of Bodysnatchers is believed, the dockworkers unite behind Terry).

Bodysnatchers is interesting in that the makers have always sworn blind that it's not a political allegory but it's often perceived as one - but at both ends of the political spectrum. Either warning against the complacency of failing to identify and call out the "communist threat" developing unrecognised in the community, with a single individual (conveniently played by an actor who also has the surname McCarthy) standing up for what's right. Or alternatively it's portrayed as an allegory of McCarthyism itself, the growing hysteria, and targeting of those who are different and must be made to follow...

With Waterfront there's the obvious behind the camera stuff with Kazan and Schulberg both testifying to the HUAC. Kazan has explicitly stated that the "I'm glad what I done" bit of the film is essentially him expressing that he was glad he testified - making the link with McCarthyism and the HUAC explicit. (Schulberg by all accounts doesn't like this take at all, and had intended the film as simply a comment on the extraordinary lives of those dock workers.)

For what it's worth I prefer to think of Bodysnatchers (in all its guises) as a film about individualism, and favour Schulberg's take on Waterfront, but there are definitely some parallels in there...

g.man

Yeah, they strike me as two films that could be included in a dive into the broader spectrum of the McCarthy era, but I wouldn't really single them out.

regmcfly

Flora and I just sat through the nearly 3 hours of Hamilton in Disney Plus. We were lucky enough to get tickets for it in London 2 years ago, and it still holds up. A lot of tears - particularly in bits of the show that hadn't got to me before.

LivDiv

I'm watching Hitman Redemption aka Asher.
Its fucking boring shit.
The effects are jank so I thought I would look up the budget.
Couldn't find the budget but did find its home cinema global take.
$2848

Fucking hell, it has Ron Perlman in it. I would have thought you could sell more than $2848 worth of blank DVDs if Perlman was on the box.

g.man

hahaha

davyK

Have 1931 Frankenstein recorded. I literally cannot remember when I last watched this even though the imagery is very much part of modern culture. Looking forward to it - it and the sequel are well regarded which surprised me - thought they would have been considered pulp.

Dark Soldier

Gonna watch Twister which is the best trash

cockbeard

LivDiv wrote:

I'm watching Hitman Redemption aka Asher. Its fucking boring shit. The effects are jank so I thought I would look up the budget. Couldn't find the budget but did find its home cinema global take. $2848 Fucking hell, it has Ron Perlman in it. I would have thought you could sell more than $2848 worth of blank DVDs if Perlman was on the box.

hahahahaha, wasn't great was it. Think I described it as Leon, but everyone got forty years older and stopped giving a shit

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