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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Mar 6, 2023 9:08:35 GMT
The Beatles: Get Back (2021)Took me forever to get around to this, but glad I finally did because it has to be one of the best docs ever about the creative process (musical at least). At 8 hours long, it will definitely test the patience of some since so much of it is repetitive performance of the same 5 songs... but as someone who is accustomed to a similar kind of rehearsal environment, and who obsessively listens to/hums/plays certain songs over and over again anyway, I enjoyed just being a fly on the wall and witnessing these songs gradually come into being. While you might argue some of this footage is unnecessary and could have been cut, the length provides an immersive quality and makes you really feel like you’re there just hanging out with the band, who you see as actual people instead of these mythic, god-like figures... so in that sense the runtime is beneficial to the overall experience. Having said that, I found the most tedious parts to be the endless debates over what the show will look like (or if there is even going to be a show at all), and the best parts to be where we actually see the band rehearsing and recording together. What struck me though was how much of it is spent just fucking around being goofy and silly... like part of you thinks about how much more productive they could have been if they were more disciplined about staying on task , but then you realize that it’s part and parcel of their creative process... because the playful activity not only gives birth to ideas, but is also just a healthy way of maintaining the band’s camaraderie and synergy – a lot of the goofing off is playing the actual songs in a silly manner, so in a way it’s establishing a sense of comfort with the material, because when you know something like the back of your hand, you can get bored playing it the same way every time. The antics are also a reminder of just how young these guys still were at the time. And their youth comes through in how we see them actually rehearse too – the way their methods seem inefficient at times rather than surgical when refining aspects of form, lyrical content, harmony, and tempo. For example, there’s a moment when they’re running through “Get Back” for the umpteenth time, and John notes that it seems like the song has gradually sped up in tempo each time they rehearse it because one of his guitar licks now feels more frantically rushed than before (an issue that could have been avoided if they had established a specific tempo for the song when they were initially writing it). And in general, it’s fascinating to observe the extent of their musical literacy as they communicate their ideas to one another - like the charming moment when George is at the piano asking Billy Preston what the names of certain chords are. While there’s an imprecision in their language for describing musical ideas, and a limited framework for understanding how certain ideas might function within a specific musical context, it’s remarkable to see how they have such an intuitive grasp of counterpoint and voice leading, resulting in an incredibly sophisticated sense of harmony. As listeners intimately familiar with the songs as they appear on the album recordings, we experience a funny pang of anxiety as we hear them perform songs that are not quite fully formed yet – the lyrics are “wrong,” the chords aren’t quite worked out yet, etc. You almost want to yell, “No, that’s not how the song goes!” to them. One of my favorite parts of the whole doc is Ringo playing a rough draft of Octopus’s Garden at the piano for the first time in front of everyone, and George helping him flesh out the chord progression. Speaking of Ringo, it’s funny that for an 8-hour documentary, we don’t really hear him say much. It’s expected that we hear mostly from John and Paul, but I even thought it was interesting that Paul mostly took on the role of band leader and that John seemed to take more of a backseat and wasn’t as dominant of a personality. Some great random funny bits too that feel like they could have come from Spinal Tap - Like after the rooftop performance: “What is that, disturbance of the peace?” “I think it’s like noise.”
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 24, 2023 8:41:30 GMT
The Rise and Fall of The Clash (2012) - A pretty good look at mostly "the fall" rather than "the rise" "It is strange how easily almost any Socialism writer can lash himself into frenzies of rage against the class to which, by birth or by adoption, he himself invariably belongs" - George Orwell - The Road To Wigan Pier - 1937 The Clash based an entire career around the counter impulses of this quote imo - and it's never mentioned about them - that's ^ a pacinoyes observation, for free, you're welcome (um). They were in effect their own "English Civil War"......... from the minute they started earning money. There's another great quote actually in the movie about them: "they were best when they were tired, hungry and poor" ..........that's not always the case with bands but for them it was ........and it ties into that "authenticity" thing about them in ways it doesn't with other bands - and that got so fncked up within them: Unlike their famous rivals they really, really, really meant it.............maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan..........and for a long time in Rock and Roll terms - but not actual terms - they pulled it off too: But that only works when you have the songs - in their case self-mythologizing ones almost immediately - and which became less frequent 1 / 3rd of the way through the sprawling, uneven Sandinista! (1980) - The Clash in many ways echo The Classic Rock bands they sought to replace - 4 identifiable personalities - "stars" in a way, who filled different roles but with the anonymity mask of Punk - which hid not only their differences but their ambition........they strove for the importance of those Classic Rock bands too - (too much) politically............. culturally.......... socially The movie has too many people talking about the band instead of just the band playing (electrifyingly of course - in a way few Rock bands can match)...........Starting with one of their best and most descriptive songs (Hate & War).........this movie kind of - but not quite - pinpoints the hit or miss Sandinista! (1980) 3 years later - as when they start to lose the plot .........and while that's sorta true........it too often wrongly suggests they were still vital in the Combat Rock (1982) era - which is kinda false. Combat Rock has high points (Know Your Rights, Straight To Hell) but it isn't one of the best albums of 1982................and when The Clash weren't "great" and you had already turned them into "the only band that mattered" - which is never true of any band, ever btw............. then you want the Us festival - or Bernie Rhodes - or the firing of Topper Headon or (worse) Mick Jones - or opening for a faltering The Who in stadiums seem like "the cause" ............... when they were "the symptoms" Worth a watch for fans or newbies .........about how bands rise .............and crucially fall apart..........a scary, inevitable story............the only difference is they were, you know for 3 years - 77-79 one of the most dazzling bands in a spectacular era..........who made - at least one - record that you can legitimately put on the verrrrrrrrrrry shortlist of GOAT albums - 1979's London Calling)........ Tired, hungry, poor:
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Jun 6, 2023 20:27:41 GMT
Scrapbooks from Africa and Beyond (1998): "From New York to Nairobi..." The definitive portrait of my personal style icon, the Byronic photographer/socialite/environmental activist Peter Beard, narrated by my favorite actress Charlotte Rampling (!!!!!!!) - I'm trying to figure out how I only just learned of this film's existence today.
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Jul 18, 2023 2:50:43 GMT
I Am Heath Ledger (2017) - Released just shy of the 10 year anniversary of his death - This is a deeply moving and totally absorbing look at his life and work, told primarily through interviews with people who knew and loved him and through seamless editing of his own home videos/photography. Obviously there were demons there that are really only suggested at here, and notably missing is the participation of Michelle Williams (reportedly she gave the film her blessing, though). It's a must for any fan, though fair warning - it's a heartbreaking watch.
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Post by HELENA MARIA on Jul 18, 2023 7:39:14 GMT
TylerDeneuve one of my favorite documentaries for sure. Made me very emotional.
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 12, 2023 18:11:20 GMT
Perdida (2009) Fascinating, but poorly put-together film about the Calderón family - that has so many "wtf" facts in it, it is almost head-spinning. Actually - it has so much in it you can tell they maybe didn't know how to cogently disseminate it all. Late in this movie a key, incidental story about Sam Fuller's Shark! (1969) is presented in a few minutes and likely could have a whole documentary just on that In fact, they may not have mentioned it by name (?) or if they did fairly quickly which is ironic in this real-life story of familial sharks....... A real odd / true story about the Mexican film industry, a little girl's family and the legacy of the family business vs. Art Not great in itself but the only place to see this - and this is something else tbh..... @anybody who thinks they know all there is about the movies, because I assure you that you do not......
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 24, 2023 14:52:41 GMT
Bus 174 (2002) - rewatchOne of the best and most startling documentaries of the post-2000s - this is essential viewing for anyone who likes documentaries, assessing human behaviors, and thinking about political and social implications of incompetence, decay and violence upon those institutions...... Martin Stett , Tommen_Saperstein , Joaquim if they haven't seen it might dig it...... This movie is floating around in subtitled versions with a quick Google search......just sayin'
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Post by wilcinema on Oct 17, 2023 16:31:56 GMT
Beckham
Riveting, thrilling four-episodes docuseries about one of the biggest football stars of the last 30 years. It tends to be a bit hagiographic at times, and it doesn't fully explore some themes that should have been explored, but I still really liked it.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Nov 7, 2023 16:53:34 GMT
every time I watch an interesting bio-doc with a clear and creative vision ( Fire of Love, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, The Last Movie Stars!!!), I watch like 5 basic ones that play like highlight reels peppered with inane talking heads. Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed comfortably sits in the latter category. Poorly edited and cursory, it's a flimsy overview of Hudson's closeted career and fruity private life & flings. There's some T spilled but it's all on the level of basic gossip and would only enough to fill out a couple lines in a biography. Worse the director cutely intercuts out-of-context clips of Hudson's acting to make gay entendres, which is embarrassingly on the nose but also embarrassingly reductive -- that all Stephen Kijak seems to be able to extract from Hudson's filmography are hints of the actor's sexuality. To be fair, I'm never been drawn to Hudson's acting and the doc didn't change that, but I also feel like I still know so little of the man himself -- apart from the fact that he apparently had a large dick. Hudson was contradictory in ways unexplored by this doc: privately promiscuous but outwardly a conservative Republican, a fact that is almost entirely glossed over except to remind the viewer in the doc's final minutes how the Reagans backstabbed Hudson when he was dying of AIDs in a French Hospital (a fact most ppl will have already known). While the latter section of the doc had some moving moments involving Hudson's battle with AIDs, including a portion covering how he had to hide his illness from fellow cast on the show Dynasty and Linda Evans touchingly reflecting on how painful their kissing scene must've been for him, Kijak's doc otherwise fixates too much on Hudson's sexuality at the cost of examining other aspects of his personal/political life or his artistic drive, and it adds little to his legacy.
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Jan 9, 2024 18:25:28 GMT
The Lost Colony of Roanoke: New Evidence (2022) - Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, it follows a joint team of investigators from the US and UK as they make new discoveries and piece together clues to reveal what really happened to the settlers of The Colony of Roanoke. One of the investigators is a descendant of the Croatan Indian Americans, grew up on the Outer Banks, and can speak Algonquian (!!!), so there's definitely a new perspective here... I think he was a linguistic consultant on Malick's The New World. Tagging those who might be interested! (Please let me know if I'm annoying you. lol.): Tommen_Saperstein theycallmemrfish stephen pacinoyes Mattsby LaraQ
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jan 23, 2024 19:47:01 GMT
you know, sometimes having a fascinating subject is enough to make a fascinating and worth-seeing profile doc -- Bill Cunningham, New York, McQueen, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, Lindsay & Martin's Tina Turner doc -- but the best profile docs use the tools of documentary filmmaking to tell a story and create an intimate glimpse into a subject's life, preferably in the subject's own words, through use of meaningfully-edited interview from primary sources, and as much archival footage as possible. Listen to Me Marlon, Fire of Love, Asif Kapadia's brilliant Amy, and Faces Places are examples that demonstrate the power and artistic potential of this subgenre of documentary filmmaking. I have quite a bit left to see but Nicole Newnham's The Disappearance of Shere Hite is my current favorite documentary of 2023. Newnham last directed Crip Camp which to me felt fairly rudimentary as docs go, but her Shere Hite project is an absolute breath of fresh air in an overstuffed climate of throwaway streaming docs and flavorless hagiographies and it makes me excited for what she does next. The doc does serve as a tribute to Hite and her research-based gender activism and her blockbuster discoveries about female and male sexuality but it largely dispenses with cursory "and then this happened"-type storytelling that plagues so many profile docs, focusing the bulk of its 120-minute runtime on Hite's research and career and the fierce misogynistic backlash it incurred. At the center is always Hite herself in tantalizing archival footage with her wispy voice and unshakable self-possession as she speaks softly but candidly of "clitoral stimulation" and "female orgasms" to the discomfort of her interviewers. With Hite's written words narrated beautifully by Dakota Johnson, Newnham's progression of the narrative allows for an intimate focus on this woman while she remains alluringly at an arm's length. Hite's flamboyance masked an insecurity about criticism and the deep loneliness that comes from being the smartest person in a room full of men who only saw her as a Playboy model, and Newnham teases at these ideas without deconstructing the enigma. The final segment covering Hite's self-imposed exile to Europe discovers a new woman in a series of photos taken of Hite by photographer Iris Brosch. This is the most moving section of the film because the pictures are the narrative culmination of Hite's ideas of self-expression and celebrating the female form and female sexuality. Although it ends with Hite's prescient concern that girls in the future would have to fight the same battles for equality that feminists in the 60s and 70s did, the viewer can take comfort that after a slow and painful "disappearance" from public and professional life in America that started the minute she published her first book, Hite managed to find a measure of peace and freedom at last in her self-imposed exile. the doc also interweaves commentary from primary source interviews about Hite's place in the feminist movement and how her significance in American pop culture has been largely forgotten, but that's why these types of docs exist. Through Newnham's graceful filmmaking, Hite has finally reappeared.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Feb 2, 2024 19:53:40 GMT
entirety of Oscar-nominated Bobi Wine: The People's President (I manifested that nom btw, I'm fully taking credit for it) is free on Youtube courtesy of National Geographic. Very much worth seeing. two other great 2023 docs are available on VOD via Youtube, Google, Apple etc: Lakota Nation vs. United States about the Lakotas' ongoing struggle for ownership of their sacred Black Hills in the Dakotas (everyone who watched 206 minutes of KotFM should spare 2 hours for this one) & Kaouther Ben Hania's Four Daughters, a captivating docufiction account of a Tunisian family of women torn apart by religious radicalization, and a portrait of Arabic mothers and daughters, the challenges of parenting and the bonds of sisterhood. Narratively experimental and incredibly moving.
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Feb 22, 2024 13:55:55 GMT
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Mar 2, 2024 17:12:51 GMT
Italy Made with Love: Generations (2022) - Winner of the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Educational Program, this American documentary takes an in-depth look at the stewards of Italian traditions, proudly passing down their finely-honed skills from one generation to the next. From leatherworkers in Tuscany to pasta makers in Emilia-Romagna, every artisan oozes passion and love for his/her work. My personal favorite, though? Truffle hunters in Umbria! The two brothers showcased in the film, who learned the trade from their father, with their adorable dog Nerina - trained to find truffles since she was a puppy: cherry68
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