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Think about it ; most successful movies these days have boring-ass, one word titles : Barbie, Oppenheimer, Wicked, Sonic, I could go on... It seems no one dares to give interesting titles to their films.
To counter this, I now offer you a short list of the names of Les Blank's documentaries. The man notoriously knew how to name his films, AND he looked like a pirate from the seventies, what could go wrong ?
1. A Poem Is a Naked Person, about Leon Russel, a GROOVY singer from the depths of the 70s
2. Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers, you guessed it, it's about garlic
3. Burden of Dreams, The making of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, you may have seen a delightful clip of this film were Herzog rants in the rainforest
4. Â God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance, general hippie tomfoolery
5. Werner Herzog eats his shoe, about losing a bet (and Werner Herzog !!!!)
All this to say people should really put more thought into naming their films, books, music etc, because it's so much more fun !!
Also just in general, if you've been wondering about American culture (can it even be defined ?) I highly recommend these films. Take a deep dive in the music, food, rituals of hippies, immigrants, suburban families... in the 70s, watch Les Blank !
Dec 28, 2024
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just throw one of these bad boys on and bask in les blank’s loving portrait of humanity and the finer things in life - garlic, polka, gap teeth, etc.
Dec 8, 2022
on it’s face this is not a particularly interesting documentary, the editing is serviceable and the interviews aren’t exactly dynamic, but what it lacks in creativity it more than makes up for in content. blank city tells the story of the no wave movement in 70s/80s downtown nyc from the ones who lived it. truly one of the most inspiring documentaries that i found at a pivotal point in my life that changed the trajectory of how i view filmmaking, art, and just coolness in general. blank city is the story of one of the most transgressive artist communities of all time and they’re not very well known, just a few names made it to the mainstream with many others becoming underground legends. in fact a few of the films featured in this documentary are only viewable by screening at the museum of modern art, totally unreleased everywhere else (and trust me i’ve tried to find them) this doc got me into the new york art scene, velvet underground, jim jarmusch, glenn o’brien’s tv party, patti smith, andy warhol, lydia lunch, john lurie, jean-michel basquiat and on and on and on. this film opened a gateway into filmmaking that i had never even considered at that point in my life and i’m grateful i found it. the best part is: kino lorber was kind enough to upload the entire thing on youtube to watch right now!
Jan 17, 2025
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Maybe some unorthodox choices but I’ve always been into non-narrative, experimental documentaries. Some of the best I know are “As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty”, “Koyaanisqatsi”, “Sans Soleil”. These were some of the purest, most powerful cinematic experiences I’ve had in my life, so I’d suggest you peep them.
On a (slightly) more conventional note, literally any documentary made by Herzog
Feb 6, 2025
Top Recs from @louise_the_robin
Feb 22, 2025
Not at all like a lot of « sensationalist » documentaries about space exploration, this is on the slower side, but it’s SO worth it !! It gets almost trippy at times, and some of the shots are so beautiful…
Being an astronaut in the 70s looks so fun !!
Also the Brian Eno soundtrack in this is INCREDIBLE.
Just watch it, it’s really good, AND it’s free on youtube (linked here)
Feb 5, 2025
This is one of my childhood films, it’s known in France and I don’t know if it’s been exported a lot but I love it !
It’s by Jacques Demy, THE French musical film director, and tells the story of donkey skin (based on a Grimm story I believe).
The costumes ! The Colors ! The songs ! Catherine Deneuve ! Random people with blue skin ! It’s all good
It all really creates a very whimsical fairy tale atmosphere that’s PERFECT
Anyway watch it with subtitles, I’m guessing dubbed musicals are really bad
Here is the trailer
Feb 9, 2025