What Makes a Moviemaker Great?

Watch this.

Terry Gilliam makes a good point, but it has been made before--by Aristotle, among others. Great tragedy requires the author to take the story all the way to the correct ending, according to Aristotle, who uses Sophocles as his example of a perfect playwright. No one wants Oedipus to pay for his accident, but his mistake cannot be undone. There is no going back after you kill your father, marry your mother and raise 4 children with her. Not even the legacy of a good kingship can do that. Tragedy is pre-freudian, I think. Not what you meant to do, not why you might have done it, just what you did. The gods judge us on what we do.

So back to Gilliam: happy endings feel good in the moment, but if art imitates life (and you can argue this if you want), then we have all felt the sting of reality at the end of one of our episodes, when the fear and doubt of the Chorus in the stasimon is indeed played out in the denouement. Having the guts to write it that way may be what separates the good filmmakers from the great ones.

And I still don't know what the end of 2001 means. I feel better about that knowing Terry Gilliam does not either/

for more on Gilliam:

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/11/27/terry-gilliam-the-heir-of-fellini-and-the-enemy-of-god/

my review of 12 Monkeys:

http://leslielovesmovies.blogspot.com/2011/08/twelve-monkeys-four-times.html

MOVIES ABOUT BEGINNINGS

I have been a fan of Tavi's for a couple of years. Could not resist re-blogging this movie review post. Enjoy.

http://rookiemag.com/2011/09/eyes-on-this/

And for more Tavi meta-cool, see her style blog:

http://www.thestylerookie.com/

A FAVORITE SCENE from A FAVORITE MOVIE

Homage to Peter Falk, who died this past summer.
We saw Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire* in 1987. Back then, Columbo was famous in the States, so this role was a revelation to us. Falk's character was world-weary, had seen it all--not unlike Detective Columbo. But this character had seen it all, so he knew to believe it all. We found ourselves hoping for an ingenuous nature 25 year later. Almost there.
*remade as City of Angels in the US. no art at all, just plot.

Scenes I Will Never Forget

And this why I hated Jon Cryer playing second fiddle to Charlie Sheen:

TWELVE MONKEYS, FOUR TIMES

SO I have seen 12 Monkeys at least four complete times. It is still hard to describe, and harder still to judge. I know that I cannot look away any time it comes on TV. Bruce Willis is a time traveler, sent from the future to undo a single terrorist act that demolished the human race. Brad Pitt plays the insane terrorist with straggly hair and a ravaged face. His cause? A PETA-on-steroids plan to punish man for his mistreatment of animals. I was dazzled the first time by Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis as well as the double views of Philly now and in the corrupt future. The twin plots: the quixotic quest of Bruce Willis to stop the terrorists that end humanity from the future and the present unfolding of the plot to stop the animal terrorists from achieving their goal. Both characters become doppelgangers of themselves, and I could argue that they are doppelgangers to each other as well.

I always love director Terry Gilliam's style. Every future scene with Bruce Willis and his jailers/doctors is terrifying in its bleakness and its exhausting detail. The panoramic scenes of the city ruled by the animals are iconic: they are as dreamy and beautiful as the present day scenes of the wintry city are ugly, begrimed by mass transit and too many people. So dark, so lush, so beautiful. I believe it, every time.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

NOT ALWAYS EASY TO WATCH...

but worth it every time. Even as a college kid, I knew his films were different, better, something to approach with respect. Watch this:

HOMAGE TO KUBRICK

link is gone! I think it was Spartacus.

Futuristic Movies Everyone Should See

I think about this topic, future movies, or dystopian movies, a lot. I am obsessed with them, but have never  been able to get them into one list. I tend to experience media--books, movies--randomly, so they do not "add up" for a long time. Works for me. Imagine my delight in reading this great list yesterday from  John Whitehead. I have not seen Land of the Blind, but all the others are on my list. Some of them are better movies than others. For instance, one should only view They Live when the need for schlock supercedes the need for artistic experience, as A Clockwork Orange is (my opinion). I do love art of ideas. It is not always successful, but satisfies me on certain days. Many would argue that Brave New World is a better novel than 1984, but I will always love 1984 more. Maybe this is my version of Dryden's essay in which he confesses that he admires Jonson, but loves Shakespeare. We love what we love. Here is the list of dytopian, futuristic movies I love:

Fahrenheit 451
2001: A Space Odyssey
Planet of the Apes
THX 1138
A Clockwork Orange
1984 (1984 version)
Brazil
They Live
Soylent Green

Blade Runner
The Matrix
Minority Report
V for Vendetta
Children of Men
Land of the Blind  

I would only add one movie and that would be TWELVE MONKEYS.




from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/dystopian-films_b_901579.html