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Been rewatching this miniseries from Lars von Trier for an essay I’ve been working on. Truly batshit. Ghost dogs! Harbingers of death! a doctor giving birth to a grown man! Haitian Voodoo!
Add in some cool 90s video grit and you’ve got a truly wonderful oddity.
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Scrolling through some of my recently watched…Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)16th century conquistadores driven to madness in the Andes. You can tell that these dudes were in the shit while filming. Always thought of this film as the original Apocalypse Now. Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. Good stuff.Badlands (1973)Seen It many times. Timeless visual beauty and performance chemistry between Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Terrence Malick’s directorial debut. Love it.Network (1976)This screened the other night in LA while I was out of town so I rented it for the twentieth time. As relevant now as it was then. A stone-cold masterpiece. Paddy Chayefsky won an Oscar for screenplay, but it lost best picture to Rocky. Taxi Driver was also nominated. What a year!Tess (1979)Just saw this for the first time. One of Polanski’s best. Feel like he was inspired by Barry Lyndon.Year of the Jellyfish (1984)A French friend recommended this one. I think it’s kind of cherished by some as a trashy cult classic. But if you’re looking for a film full of gorgeous, topless French women on vacation in San Tropez in the 1980s, this is for you!The West (miniseries) (1996)I rewatch Ken Burns documentaries all the time. Jazz, Country Music, Baseball, Lewis & Clark, all of them. I’ve seen each one multiple times. The West is remarkable. A comprehensive deep dive into 19th century American history. 20-hours replete with unmistakable, soothing Burns-esque narration and somber songs of the old American frontier. Fascinating, harsh and profoundly sad.
May 30, 2023
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Truly one of the most anarchic films I've ever seen. Ridiculous, hilarious, gory, kinda vile, and yet actually pretty good stylistically. It's on the people's streaming service Tubi for your enjoyment rn.
Nov 11, 2024
Finally saw this for the first time (on 35mm thxx Prince Charles Cinema) and wow. Jonathan Glazer and co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière spending all of pre-production re-writing the script without informing the studio… DP Harris Savides pushing the boundaries of underexposed film and getting the craziest deepest browns and purples out of Kodak stock… Alexandre Desplat starting with what seems like a very polite classical score and then gradually bringing in heavy synth bass… and of course Nicole Kidman throwing herself headlong into an insane role (and apparently bullying the producers for more $$$ when they finished under budget)
Nov 10, 2024
Top Recs from @jsimpson
Empires in decay.
Toshifumi Hinata's debut came out at a time when Japan's star was momentarily starting to wane. In response, he went wandering through Europe, taking in the waste and desolation of World War II that much of Europe never fully recovered from.
As a result, we get this strange, beautiful album of solo piano, like a mix of Angelo Badalamenti's early-90s soundtracks, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and proto-vaporwave, anticipating the Neoclassical music of Erased Tapes in the '00s by a few decades.
Jan 23, 2024