Black Cat Bone

Few things in life are better than Vertigo.

I think we're waiting to find out

Uploaded the latest batch. I'll be uploading the ones remaining over the weekend.

This last bunch is kind of rough going for me.

Rough going? How so?

They're the films I'd expect to see up there really. People may quibble about Spinal Tap, but it's one of the funniest films I've seen so I have no problems with its high position. Plus as a music film it's going to have its own BCB appeal. My own personal "overrated" film is Brazil, I've never quite got the popularity of that one, but it's always done well in BCB polls, and indeed in wider critics polls, so again not a surprise.

I know Davey doesn't care for Blue Velvet, we've had that discussion in the past.

Holy Grail, Spinal Tap, Blue Velvet, Aguirre - some of my least favourite films. In fact I (re-)watched three of them over the last 12 months and still couldn't see the fuss. Maybe Davey has similar feelings.

Looking forward very much to the top 8 now.

Weird.

All of them are great. Two of them are amongst my favourite films ever.

Dr. E. PLATE wrote:Holy Grail, Spinal Tap, Blue Velvet, Aguirre - some of my least favourite films. In fact I (re-)watched three of them over the last 12 months and still couldn't see the fuss. Maybe Davey has similar feelings.

Looking forward very much to the top 8 now.

I'm surprised to see you say that about Grail given you're a huge Python fan. My own memory (and I haven't seen either for a long time) is that Grail was always a funnier film than LoB, but not as deep, ambitious or cinematic (it was made on a real shoestring budget - something they built into the comedy of the script with the non-existent horses etc.). I've always felt the Python films were a little overrated on BCB, but at the same time have a lot of warmth towards them myself, so am happy to see them do well.
Aguirre - I need to rewatch this actually, and have a Herzog boxset somewhere, so will do this soon. I have seen it once before, back in the 80s, and it didn't make much impression on me, but I want to give it a rewatch before deciding what I think of it.

algroth wrote:One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Directed by Miloš Forman

A few decades after the destruction of the Inca empire, a Spanish expedition leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon river in search of gold and wealth. Soon, they come across great difficulties and Don Aguirres, a ruthless man who cares only about riches, becomes their leader. But will his quest lead them to "the golden city", or to certain destruction? --Chris Makrozahopoulos (IMDb.com)

It's weird how people get different things from different films. I must admit, I love this film, but I never saw it as an allegory for the Spanish ransacking of South America. Is Aguirres Nurse Ratchet or McMurphy?

The Modernist wrote:

Dr. E. PLATE wrote:Holy Grail, Spinal Tap, Blue Velvet, Aguirre - some of my least favourite films. In fact I (re-)watched three of them over the last 12 months and still couldn't see the fuss. Maybe Davey has similar feelings.

Looking forward very much to the top 8 now.

I'm surprised to see you say that about Grail given you're a huge Python fan. My own memory (and I haven't seen either for a long time) is that Grail was always a funnier film than LoB, but not as deep, ambitious or cinematic (it was made on a real shoestring budget - something they built into the comedy of the script with the non-existent horses etc.). I've always felt the Python films were a little overrated on BCB, but at the same time have a lot of warmth towards them myself, so am happy to see them do well.
Aguirre - I need to rewatch this actually, and have a Herzog boxset somewhere, so will do this soon. I have seen it once before, back in the 80s, and it didn't make much impression on me, but I want to give it a rewatch before deciding what I think of it.

That's how I see it. Life of Brian is the stronger film but Grail is funnier even if they don't know how to end it.

I don't really have much to add to what I've said already - I didn't find Holy Grail funny in the slightest. It's difficult to pinpoint what it is. It relies way too much on a side of Python I don't care for. I'd say a 'silly' side, but of course that doesn't really say much 'cos they're always silly! A lot of the supposedly funniest scenes/lines didn't even bring a smile (the Knights of Ni, Cleese as a Frenchman insulting the invaders, Palin talking about being oppressed or whatever it is - strikes me this is kind of lazy comedy).

I definitely find Life of Brian funnier, but really it's only the TV series I love - and that's one of my favourite things ever, all in all. There's much more in them, the freeform, unpredictable nature of it appeals much more. Saying 'your mother smells of elderberries' in a high-pitched voice doesn't cut it for me


Aguirre - maybe it's not fair to judge, 'cos I only lasted about 20 minutes. But it was comically bad, just atrocious.

I think with Aguirre it’s the odd mix of documentary style realism combined with the quality of a detached dream that becomes increasingly stranger and more haunting as the characters mental state disintegrate that gives the film its power.

You can obviously read it as an allegory for western colonialism or the folly and arrogance of man in trying to conquer nature and so on. Nazi Germany casts a shadow over it too: one man’s obsession and madness leading others into disaster.

It’s one of these simple stories that manages to say a lot.

I thought Aguirre was a bit hammy myself. Nice atmosphere but while I liked Kinski's performance at the time my overwhelming memory is of him gurning his way through it all.

These auteur films sometimes come across quite foolishly if they don't get it right.

algroth wrote:Rough going? How so?

It’s a mix of a few films I actively dislike, and a few I’m fine with with a slew of others that I just would never rate as highly as this. I don’t think I voted for any of them after Badlands until you get all the way to Taxi Driver (though I mostly didn’t vote for Vertigo and Seven Samurai because I knew others would).

Having both Brazil and Blue Velvet next to each other in the top 10 is a heaping tray of brussel sprouts.

But it’s a snapshot of BCB’s tastes, not just mine. So it’s all fine.

Dr. E. PLATE wrote:I don't really have much to add to what I've said already - I didn't find Holy Grail funny in the slightest. It's difficult to pinpoint what it is. It relies way too much on a side of Python I don't care for. I'd say a 'silly' side, but of course that doesn't really say much 'cos they're always silly! A lot of the supposedly funniest scenes/lines didn't even bring a smile (the Knights of Ni, Cleese as a Frenchman insulting the invaders, Palin talking about being oppressed or whatever it is - strikes me this is kind of lazy comedy).

Come see the violence inherent in the system!

Bloody peasant.

It's great.

I don't think "lazy" is the right word at all. I struggle to understand how you wouldn't find any of it funny at all. I remember watching it for the first time and I damn near soiled myself throughout the movie.

You know what one of my favourite gags is? The two guards standing at the door and Cleese attacking from miles away. Repeat shot of Cleese miles away. Boom! He's at the front door!

Holy Grail is fine. But it’s hard to get any meat off off that bone anymore.

Goat Boy wrote:

Dr. E. PLATE wrote:I don't really have much to add to what I've said already - I didn't find Holy Grail funny in the slightest. It's difficult to pinpoint what it is. It relies way too much on a side of Python I don't care for. I'd say a 'silly' side, but of course that doesn't really say much 'cos they're always silly! A lot of the supposedly funniest scenes/lines didn't even bring a smile (the Knights of Ni, Cleese as a Frenchman insulting the invaders, Palin talking about being oppressed or whatever it is - strikes me this is kind of lazy comedy).

Come see the violence inherent in the system!

Bloody peasant.

It's great.

I don't think "lazy" is the right word at all. I struggle to understand how you wouldn't find any of it funny at all. I remember watching it for the first time and I damn near soiled myself throughout the movie.

You know what one of my favourite gags is? The two guards standing at the door and Cleese attacking from miles away. Repeat shot of Cleese miles away. Boom! He's at the front door!

It's like it was written and performed by a bunch of sixth-formers. A kind of forced, desperate piss-about. 'Give them some money, their revue showed promise!'.

You know they're short of good ideas when the opening gag features fellas clopping coconut shells together.

There's one scene with Cleese that I found funny - in fact the only bit that made me laugh at all - but I can't remember what it was. But it wasn't that bit.