Classic films you just "don't get".

[The Modernist]

OK a thread not so much about films you dislike,more films which are held in high regard where you think "what's so special about that".

At the risk of sounding like a total philistine, I nominate La Regle Du Jeu (Jean Renoir 1939). This film regularly gets put in the top 3 films ever list when critics do these canon type things. I was always slightly guilty that I'd never seen it, so was really looking forward to it when I got the chance to see it last year.
It wasn't that I found it bad, more just a bit ordinary and a slight period piece. I just found it to be a rather dated comedy of manners and I was disappointed at how pedestrian the direction was.
I'm quite sure the film had all sorts of subtleties I missed, to be honest my attention wondered way before the end.

[KeithPratt]

Mulholland Drive..

You wot me?

Actually, I don't think it's really a classic.

[Billybob Dylan]

Most of them.

[the masked man]

"Les Enfants du Paradis" - not a bad film, but I couldn't see why critics were falling over it so much. It was rather stagey and so very long.

[Penk!]

Taxi Driver. Think the ending's totally wrong.
*LOOK AWAY AND SCROLL DOWN TO WHERE THE OTHER BIG WRITING IS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM*














The way that after he's gone on his rather minor rampage and killed Harvey Keitel, Bickle just returns to a kind of normal life; he seems to be satisfied by having killed just one pimp. The rest of the film has built up a lot more than that and it seems something of a cop-out ending to me.
















*YOU CAN LOOK BACK NOW IF YOU WANT*

Sorry for wasting all that space

[KeithPratt]

Oh no - It's cracking! But a lot like a very long train journey. It's the sheer breadth of it which is so wonderful.

[Guest]

Well, if someone lays out what I am suppose to get about a film, then I'll take that into account when I view it. That said, I enjoy most films based purely on aesthetical value and not the plot or any other subtlies that may underlie the thematic nature of it.

That said, there are many films that I have seen based on their plot and story and unless it's an incredibly written and executed plot, I generally don't see the brilliance of it.

[Sea Of Tunes]

Oooo -
a most sensitive issue.
'Dr Strangelove'
'Yol'
All of Tarantino, except 'Jackie Brown'
All of Oliver Stone, except 'Nixon'
All of Godard
Most of Chaplin
Films after Ayn Rand
Various 'Dogme' films (Von Trier, Vinterberg, et al)
'Catch-22'
'Soldier Blue'
Most Road Movies
'The Matrix 1,2,3'
'The Passion Of The Christ'
Most film musicals


will I be suspended then from BCB?

I already have my coat on...

[Sea Of Tunes]

i remember watching "the third man" in my late teens and wondering what all the fuss was about. of course, i might love it now but i haven't seen it since.

(2001: a space oddyssey is a classic, though!)

Griffie, choose the weapons. Ten paces, then turn.....

[Tactful Cactus]

Zybriskie Point.

Guy shoots cop - walks around a bit - breezes into an airfield and flys off in a plane - Impresses a girl by trying to fly into her car

*35mins of desert hippy nonsense*

Guy flys back to airfield - gets shot - girl goes home and gets testy with her Dad.

The End



What rubbish! Still, the music was good.

[The Modernist]

i remember watching "the third man" in my late teens and wondering what all the fuss was about. of course, i might love it now but i haven't seen it since.

(2001: a space oddyssey is a classic, though!)

Do give it another go Andy, I think you'd really enjoy it. It is a film people remember for its "moments", the narrative can get a bit slow in parts. However visually it's brilliant, cinematically as arresting as anything I've seen. And I think its overall cynicism, is something you tend to appreciate more as you get older (or to put it another way you admire the courage of a mainstream film to be so openly misanthropic).
I have the option of teaching it myself, but don't because I know it would bore most 17 year olds (I do show clips when I'm talking about lighting in films though).

[--]

All of Tarantino, except 'Jackie Brown'

Damn straight. Now, watch the fanboys explode in apoplexy...

'Catch-22'

Doesn't really work on its own, but as a shadow of the book it's not so bad. A valiant attempt, at least and Arkin was pretty much perfect for Yossarian.

[The Modernist]

Zybriskie Point.

Guy shoots cop - walks around a bit - breezes into an airfield and flys off in a plane - Impresses a girl by trying to fly into her car

*35mins of desert hippy nonsense*

Guy flys back to airfield - gets shot - girl goes home and gets testy with her Dad.

The End



What rubbish! Still, the music was good.

Yep, that's about it. I like it, but only as a period piece (as in a lets laugh at the hippies kind of way).

[Owen]

2001 Space Odyssey.
I got it, I just found it deeply, deeply dull.

wins my award for the film I've started the most often and not finished definitely.

But I tend to be 'it's not me it's them' about most films, like you say I get them they are just dull and I'm not that interested in continuing to watch once I've got whatever little 6th form philosophy student point they are trying to sledgehammer home

[K]

Mulholland Drive..

You wot me?

Actually, I don't think it's really a classic.

This is the bullshit film of all time. Money for old rope. Fucking Lynch pulled the wool over a lot of eyes when he made this. Only worth it for the lesbian scenes ' '


I also hate Vanishing Point.

[emerson boozer]

I don't know if they're "classic" or not, but alot of people in my age bracket of late 30's early 40's seem to love those John Hughes teen angst films from the 80's and I find them extremely whiny and shallow. Another film I don't understand the love for is Grease.

[KeithPratt]

I have this problem with a lot of my friends too. They all adore those John Hughes Bratpack films, especially those with Look me I failed Andy McCarthy in them. Why? They're rubbish!

[The Modernist]

I love the ending of Taxi Driver. Society celebrates him as a hero when the whole film has been detailing how fucked up he is. It's brilliantly cynical.

[Mozz]

Gangs Of New York: strictly speaking, not a classic (yet) but I found it was bland as beige.

[Owen]

Taxi Driver. Think the ending's totally wrong.
*LOOK AWAY AND SCROLL DOWN TO WHERE THE OTHER BIG WRITING IS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM*














The way that after he's gone on his rather minor rampage and killed Harvey Keitel, Bickle just returns to a kind of normal life; he seems to be satisfied by having killed just one pimp. The rest of the film has built up a lot more than that and it seems something of a cop-out ending to me.
















*YOU CAN LOOK BACK NOW IF YOU WANT*

Sorry for wasting all that space

Saw a quite convincing argument made for everything after a certain point being a fantasy as he lies dying on the floor somewhere. Everything just turns out exactly as he had pictured after a film showing a guy with no power to control anything in his life.

< didnt actually agree, I'm with the modernist on the ending personally>

There's not really much to 'get' about Tarantino is there? I can understand people not caring for some of it and it's obviously a bit overrated but it's not really the same as the Modernists original point is it.