OTB#12: Raging Bull

Raging Bull. Martin Scorsese. 1980. ⚁

OK, we’re now in the final dozen movies in this blog series, and what’s striking about the final (i.e., most highly rated) movies is that they’re mostly box office smashes:

It is, perhaps, not surprising, exactly — but it’s definitely a thing. It’s not that the OTB list is full of experimental film or anything (quite the opposite), but in the final dozen we have five 70-ish-ish American blockbusters, and that’s not the ratio for the rest of the list.

So… I guess… directors like movies that other people like? Well, in the 70s.

And one other thing: I’ve seen absolutely all of these before.

But most of them I haven’t seen in a long while, because American films of the 70s isn’t really something that I’m really interested in. So I saw Raging Bull probably on rental VHS sometime as a teenager, and I remember nothing about it.

Perhaps it’s great! Let’s find out.

[two minutes pass]

OH GOD OH GOD I HATE IT MAKE IT STOP

I didn’t think it was possible to get such a feeling of boredom and loathing and revulsion from a simple dolly shot.

BUT IT IS!!1!!

[ten minutes pass]

It’s almost fascinating how unnatural and stilted the dialogue is. Like the scene where De Niro gets his brother to hit him in the face.

I can see guys creaming themselves at the tough guy talk (which explains the votes), but… it’s such a fantasy.

Everything is a cliché from the mobster lite talk to the shrew of a wife.

[fourty minutes pass]

OK, now I’ve changed my mind a bit. It’s like… it’s like… this is Italian social-realist film for dummies? I find all the conversations between people intensely uninteresting, though. And that’s perhaps because they never shut up? But I do like some of the shots. The discussion between the brothers in the kitchen (about how whether De Niro wins or loses against the new guy) is… it doesn’t feel real at all (it’s so erudite, but pretend-tough), but it holds some interest. Especially when the wives got involved (and summarily dismissed.)

Hm…

Oh, Richard Ayoade voted for this one. I just read his Ayoade on Top (very witty), and here’s his votes:

Well, OK, that’s certainly a consistent point of view.

[half an hour passes]

So… this is a male version of The Housewives of Lon Guyland? The discussions the have are risible and annoying.

The perms are impressive, though:

[three more hours pass, apparently]

OK, now the protagonist is a stand-up comic. If there’s anything more boring than sports people, it’s stand-up people. This movie is just sublime!

I can’t even tell whether his routines are supposed to be really, really bad, or whether it’s supposed to be good, because he just does a standard stand up routine, as far as I can tell.

This blog post is part of the Officially The Best series.

OTB#13: Persona

Persona. Ingmar Bergman. 1966. ⚅

I watched this movie two years ago during the 87 Bergman Things blog series, but I wanted to watch it again, so here you go: Probably a slightly different series of screenshots? You gets what you pays for, dead reader.

[thirty minutes pass]

Looking at the remaining films on the list of Officially The Best movies, I don’t think there’s anything better than this movie left. I mean, this film is in-credibly stunning. Everything about it is pure genius, centred around the shattering performances from Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann. Of course, Sven Nykvist could make anything look gripping, but when those two are on the screen…

Dude.

But watching it now is very different from last time (when it had been at least a decade since I saw it last): This time I know the central betrayal that underlies the apparent idyll, and… that makes it somehow even more gripping.

[the end]

Dude.

Dude!

The movie just gets better the more times I see it. It’s not a… timeless? movie: It’s very much a movie made in 1966. It’s the essence of 1966. And that somehow makes it more vital than anything.

But the real reason I’m rewatching this now instead of just punting to the previous blog post about it is this:

Yes! Criterion finally (i.e., last year) released a blu ray set of Bergman movies!

And this 2K restoration of Persona is totes wonderful. The box itself is also very er tactile — it’s very heavy, but it’s got a soft touch thing going on, which I assume is because it’s covered in a phthalate-treated plastic, so that means that an untold number of fishes gonads mutated to give me the pleasure of touching this box set.

I appreciate it!

Oooh. There’s a full moon tonight.

This blog post is part of the Officially The Best series.

OTB#13: The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows. François Truffaut. 1959. ⚅

I really thought I’d seen this before, but I couldn’t find it anywhere… until I searched for Quatre Cents Coups. Duh.

Anyway, I watched this in 2016, and now I’m watching it again. I don’t actually remember much of this (pre?-)Nouvelle Vague movie other than that it was quite pretty? And had something to do with school? Let’s find out.

[half an hour passes]

Well, OK, I didn’t remember this movie before starting to watch it, but immediately whenever a new scene starts it’s “aahhh! this scene…” like it’s an iconic scene I’ve lived with all my life. Which I haven’t. But Truffaut makes everything seem like the perfect instantiation of the concept: That’s The Schoolroom; that’s The Flat; that’s The Gorgeous Mother; that’s The Goofy Dad. How could it be otherwise?

[the end]

I love this movie, but it’s not perfect. The kids are a lot of fun to watch, but they’re not exactly er good actors — frequently they’re just standing around waiting for their cues to deliver their lines, which they’ll do with great alacrity. It’s fun to watch. The adult actors are also quite variable, with some of the teachers devolving into panto at times.

It is a wonderful movie, though I can’t really say whether the pleasure I’m having watching this is due to the film being, you know, great, or whether I just love watching these people moving around in their impeccably stylish 50s French clothes in these impeccably stylish picaresque French surroundings.

This blog post is part of the Officially The Best series.