Comments on Thanks for the Use of the Hall - Archive: Assorted Screenings in NYC, June-July 2008

There's a history of that kind of stuff in the ex-...

2008-08-02T22:31:00.000-04:00

There's a history of that kind of stuff in the ex-Soviet regions, isn't there? Vaclav Havel and the Plastic People of the Universe, so on, etc. Seems more political than anything.

Slow on the uptake, sorry. I've been crewing. And sorry I'm missing your show! I'm catching up on a doc preparatory to an interview I have to do Monday.

I didn't dislike the punk songs in Outsider. But ...

2008-07-30T21:58:00.000-04:00

I didn't dislike the punk songs in Outsider. But the movie did seem vulnerable to the charge of romanticizing its own rebelliousness.

Thanks Dan. As far as When I Close My Eyes, I pick...

2008-07-30T15:58:00.000-04:00

Thanks Dan. As far as When I Close My Eyes, I picked up the De Palma vibe as well; I think what's interesting here is the way heavy-duty political trauma becomes grist for the genre mill in a way that seems self-conscious. Astounded you liked The Valley Of Peace, but what the hell.

Saddened you didn't like the punk songs in Outsider, but hey, whatever.

I pretended I was at an out-of-town film festival ...

2008-07-21T16:00:00.000-04:00

I pretended I was at an out-of-town film festival yesterday, and saw a whole bunch of Slovenian films.

Spare Parts: The visuals were sometimes appealing, but I didn't enjoy this film a lot. It wavered for a while between enjoying the subject matter's innate cruelty and lingering on its pathos, and neither mode appealed to me. The film got more interesting as the male

Okay - I'll post comments here. I saw If I Close ...

2008-07-17T08:42:00.000-04:00

Okay - I'll post comments here. I saw If I Close My Eyes on opening night, didn't enjoy it much. It reminded me a lot of DePalma: really attractive compositions and a good sense of space, a tendency to work with genre conventions instead of characterization, a systematic ritualization of all action and gesture. I'm really not sure how this kind of film is supposed to work: it takes the

Dunno if this clarifies anything, but:http://www.v...

2008-07-16T16:48:00.000-04:00

Dunno if this clarifies anything, but:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-07-16/film/lincoln-center-throws-its-spotlight-on-slovenia/

indieWIRE will have my interview with the ROOSTER'S BREAKFAST director up in short order, I believe. I run Slovenia. When you see any, could you be bothered to post? It would be great to trade notes with someone else who actually watched any of them.

Heh. Well our taste overlap is inconsistent, so fe...

2008-07-10T07:53:00.000-04:00

Heh. Well our taste overlap is inconsistent, so feel free to ignore. But the best of the bunch is OUTSIDER, if I could recommend just one. It's certainly not worth plowing through the whole slate.

Thanks for the scouting, Vadim. Unfortunately, yo...

2008-07-09T23:09:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the scouting, Vadim. Unfortunately, your report means that I now feel obligated to see practically the entire retrospective, because the ones you unrecommended were the ones I'd already decided to see, and the ones you liked hadn't been on my radar.

I actually saw The Raft of the Medusa back when it came out, and I didn't enjoy it either. And I outright disliked

Oh, and WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES founders in the last ...

2008-07-09T16:01:00.000-04:00
Oh, and WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES founders in the last 2/3. Until then it plays like a decently trashy DTV B-movie.

Tersely: ROOSTER'S BREAKFAST, OUTSIDER and SWEET D...

2008-07-09T15:51:00.000-04:00
Tersely: ROOSTER'S BREAKFAST, OUTSIDER and SWEET DREAMS are all recommended, more or less. (They range from low-to-high '60s on the retarded 100-point scale.) I would strongly recommend staying away from VESNA and THE VALLEY OF PEACE, which pretty much have nothing to offer. I found DANCE IN THE RAIN pretty repellent, but it's certainly "distinctive." RAFT OF THE MEDUSA is only for people who

CelineJulie - thanks for the tip. I liked the tra...

2008-07-03T07:39:00.000-04:00
CelineJulie - thanks for the tip. I liked the trailer for Spare Parts and had already been thinking about seeing it - now I'll make a greater effort.

In the Slovenian Film Series, I saw only SPARE PAR...

2008-07-01T08:37:00.000-04:00
In the Slovenian Film Series, I saw only SPARE PARTS (2003, Damjan Kozole) and recommend it. It deals with the illegal immigration issue in an unsentimental way. I much prefer it to films like DIRTY PRETTY THINGS (2002, Stephen Frears). I think SPARE PARTS may make a good unintentional trilogy with THE PROMISE (1996, Jean Pierre + Luc Dardenne) and ONCE YOU’RE BORN YOU CAN NO LONGER HIDE (2005,

Cool - please pass along any tips, if it doesn't m...

2008-06-28T23:17:00.000-04:00
Cool - please pass along any tips, if it doesn't mean scooping yourself.

I actually picked up the Slovenian series on assig...

2008-06-28T16:41:00.000-04:00
I actually picked up the Slovenian series on assignment for the Voice, so I should have some intel on this by week's end.