bigsleepj wrote:Sunset Boulevard is an excellent movie, but as I told you before it's not always considered noir (though mostly because of a narrow definition). It's interesting, but I knew the plot beforehand when I saw it (the staircase scene) and still it was powerful, actually making me cry. I also loved it because it had Buster Keaton in a cameo. WOOHOO!!
Citizen Kane is well made, but I've always felt that the amounts of praise it gets is killing it slowly]
I totally agree. Though it is overrated. I enjoyed it for what it was. I too fell for the trap of it being "amazing". But after some thought, I started to like it more.One great Hitchcock movie that has to be seen is Vertigo. It is not everybody's cup of tea, but it's dark, disturbing and maybe even the creepiest movie I've seen.
Like I said, such a good movie. And it is indeed extremely creepy.My favourite modern classic is Fargo by Joel and Ethan Coen. It's a small movie made for peanuts and set in Minnesota. It tells the tale of a hapless car-salesman who hires two idiotic criminals to kidnap his wife and ransom her to her rich father, only to watch things go entirely and horribly wrong. The movie is deliberately slow paced and does not fit comfortably under any genre, but it is a unique film and possibly one of the best if you can "get into it". But it is highly violent with lots of swearing in it. Stars Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare and William H Macy.
I was over my friend's house last week, and I was planning on borrowing it. But I forgot! If I recall what he told me, it has a lot of dark humor, correct? The plot reminds me of "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance". A ransom gone horribly wrong, slow paced, and violent.One Stanley Kubrick movie you have to watch is Dr Strangelove or: How I learned to stop Worrying and love the Bomb. It's his best movie in my oppinion. The Shining is stupid. Really stupid. Read Stephen King's book instead.
Mr. SmartyPants wrote:It also had Erich von Stroheim playing as the Butler. And my teacher pointed out that Buster Keaton was one of the card-playing friends.
Mr. SmartyPants wrote:Oh and I'm curious. Why do you say it might not be film-noir? I mean my teacher calls it noir, imdb calls it noir, wikipedia calls it noir XD Is there something in Sunset Boulevard that makes it different from other film-noir?
Mr. SmartyPants wrote:Ah yes. Peanut is always telling me to watch that. Though I hear many good things about The Shining.
bigsleepj wrote:*Minor Spoilers for Sunset Blvd*
I believe it is film noir, but people with a narrow definition say it would not because it does not have any gangsters, detectives or criminals in it. Film noir was born out of detective fiction and so people expect all film noir MUST BE detective fiction or at least about criminals. As I said, its a narrow view. Sunset Boulevard is a film noir, and is one of the best because it avoids all those trappings. Even the story of how the dead body got in the pool (and is told by the dead body) becomes sort of a forgotten fact until he gets killed at the end. Film noir tends to be structured around a crime that drives the plot towards the tragedy]
I totally agree. Yes I know it spawned from detective fiction. But according to my teacher, film noir has 5 of these things. (or most of them)
1. Confuzzling plot with intricacies of fate.
2. A Femme Fatale
3. Dark side of human kind
4. Voice-over narrative
5. "Mad love"I haven't seen Mr Vengeance, but I doubt they'd even be remotely similar. The plot may be similar but many different movies have similar plots if you water the details down to its simplist forms.
Yah that's true. I'll agree with you there. I really want to check out Fargo now.The Shining was just dumb. I'm sorry. It had a few good scenes admittedly, but otherwise it sucked. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
Mr. SmartyPants wrote:Yah that's true. I'll agree with you there. I really want to check out Fargo now.
" wrote:Speaking of classic movies, my copy of Plan 9 From Outer Space arrived in the mail today, and I'll watch it this weekend. That's definitely a classic movie.
" wrote:Plus, it contains commentary from Mike Nelson. Bonus!
bigsleepj wrote:Oh, that copy. Mike Nelson it may have (which is good) but its COLORIZED!!
kaemmerite wrote:It has both the colorized and original B&W versions on that DVD.
I of course intend to watch it only in black and white.
kaemmerite wrote:Speaking of classic movies, my copy of Plan 9 From Outer Space arrived in the mail today, and I'll watch it this weekend. That's definitely a classic movie.
goldenspines wrote:Its only stealing if you don't get caught.
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