Opening in Dallas, 03/16
by Brian
I had to go to Las Vegas for a few days this week, so I’ve got a bit of work to catch up on today. Because of that, and because there’s really nothing interesting this week (anyone know anything about Le Petit Lieutenant?), I’m running titles only.
Le Petit Lieutenant (trailer)
I Think I Love My Wife (trailer)
Premonition (trailer)
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (trailer at official site)
Dead Silence (trailer)
Le Petit Lieutenant (trailer)
I Think I Love My Wife (trailer)
Premonition (trailer)
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (trailer at official site)
Dead Silence (trailer)
|Link|4:14 PM
45 Comments:
(anyone know anything about Le Petit Lieutenant?)
As Joe Sherry once said, ask and ye shall receive.
It was playing here for a short run around January, but I didn't catch it. They titled it Young Cop (Ung Snut) instead of the direct translation (The Little Lieutenant).
It has two parallel stories, the first and better one about a newly examined cop who by chance becomes a ranking officer at a smaller district. The other one is about his boss, who the reviewers agreed came off as a milder version of Jane Tennison. Reviews were overall above average, saying it had an existential dimension that most police procedurals lack.
Nothing inspiring. With a foot of snow falling outside, it's probably a good weekend to clear out the pile of Netflix sitting on my coffee table.
So how was ShoWest, Brian?
So how was ShoWest, Brian?
Dammit, Jay, you're more perceptive than I am.
Yes... how was ShoWest, Brian?
Couldn't really tell you. I spent all my time either on the trade show floor (our company had a booth) or eating/sleeping.
I would creep Brian out more with some casual remark about the booth that I think was next to his booth, but I could be wrong and I don't want to look like too much of a cyberstalker. It's just a silly compulsion....
Saw Le Petit Lieutenant last night. Not much to say about it, Nick's summation pretty much hit the mark exactly.
Funny comment about Jane Tennison, though. I've never seen Prime Suspect, and had to look up "Jane Tennison" to know what the reference meant. But I spent the whole movie thinking, "this is exactly the kind of role I'd expect Helen Mirren to play in the English-language remake".
Also, I'd add that the poster (the US poster uses the same artwork), suggests a much different tone than the one actually in the movie. Highly misleading, I'd say.
Also, forgot to add that the last shot of the movie is very, very bold, like something out of a Haneke film (based on my limited knowledge of Haneke, anyway). But it doesn't work, and in fact I thought it was kinda silly.
My parents are zealous fans of British crime dramas, and rank Prime Suspect as the peak amongst them. So I grew up knowing the series pretty well. But I should've guessed it's not as well known over in the states.
The trailer you linked to gave a pretty different vibe than the poster (same one used here), so I'm not surprised. Seems to be more of a drama about crime and policemen than a thriller, although I'm guessing that element's there as well.
Nick, I would say Prime Suspect is pretty well-known here--it's just that Brian doesn't watch TV shows, right? ;-)
I don't watch TV shows, but I've also not heard of it. So I assume that both things are somewhat true - it's perhaps not generally well-known, but also that I wouldn't have understood the reference anyway.
Either way, I don't mind looking it up. Easy to do, of course.
Haneke's done a remake of his own Funny Games, one of the most prolonged tortuous sit-throughs of a film I've experienced (took a break to get a smoke in the middle of the film, mostly as an excuse). Coming out this year. Hard to say if the original was a good film. Don't know how this one will look, or how much will have been changed. But I can see the Guantamo discussions surrounding the film coming a mile away.
Yeah, need to watch the original Funny Games sometime before the new one comes out. But haven't found anyone that rents the Kino DVD yet, and am avoiding the Fox Lorber one because it's apparently a piece of shit.
At least I have time - the US release of the new one appears planned for Christmas...
Read somewhere that it's likely that it will premiere in Cannes. And since it's not strictly speaking Austrain anymore, it might spark the furore all over again, and spoil some of the stuff that happens. So if I were you I'd try to watch it before then.
Not too worried about that. The furor-mongers over here won't go after anything as metaphorical as Funny Games likely will be. Besides, Michael Moore's new movie ought to keep them busy long past the time Funny Games comes out.
By the way, since we're on the subject, how many of the Haneke films have you seen? Most of them are only available on crappy DVDs over here, so they're tough to get a hold of.
Funny Games metaphorical? I don't know... I'm pretty sure the original sure isn't. One can surely make a case for Caché being so, even The Piano Teacher, in a "love hurts, is hurt love? does one love or just hurt? pain, pain, pain"-kinda way. Funny Games is a bit different from his other films, even if one sure as hell can tell it's a Haneke film. But like I said, it's kind of hard to say if it's a good film or not. It's painful viewing, anyway.
Those three would also be the three of his I've seen. The Piano Teacher came on late night tv while I was spending christmas with the family.
I meant metaphorical in the sense that it obviously wouldn't overtly be about Guantanamo.
Yeah, but who knows what might be whipped up in the name of "any publicity is good publicity", by either the people behind the film or groups against it.
am i the only one who has no idea what you guys are talking about? Prime Suspect? Haneke? Kino? Funny Games? This is getting too cineaste for me!
Where's the Chris Farley discussion?
Where's the Chris Farley discussion?
We'd probably fuck that one up, as well.
am i the only one who has no idea what you guys are talking about?
Yeah, well, he started it with that "Jane Tennison" talk.
And look who's throwing stones, by the way. I mean, what the hell is a cineaste? And why is it italicized?
Yeah, but who knows what might be whipped up in the name of "any publicity is good publicity", by either the people behind the film or groups against it.
True, but the people behind the film (in the US at least) appear to be Warner Independent. I'm not sure they could whip up a batch of pancakes. If they're really behind the film they might run a TV ad or two for it.
And the groups that would presumably be against it just aren't smart enough to tease out meaning from an art film.
Oh, no, Count Olaf, don't tell me you've never heard of Prime Suspect's Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison!?!? Honest, Nick, everyone I know was watching it long before I was. I mean, she made TV Guide's list of 50 Greatest TV Characters back in the '90's. The last episodes, which aired last year here on PBS, got a ton of publicity. Maybe PBS just has a bigger following in North Carolina.... The only reason Helen Mirren and the series didn't win Golden Globes this year is because she was also in HBO's Elizabeth I.
Yeah, well, he started it with that "Jane Tennison" talk.
I'm European. I'm allowed.
True, but the people behind the film...
Yes, and Haneke is no von Trier. Good point.
What I mean is if, hypothetically, someone on the press conference (say, Tim Roth) says that the film's a commentary on current US events, then maybe, if the press picked up on it, we can expect picket lines around art house theaters over the US by the Freedom Federation, or whatever those groups call themselves.
But like you said, it's unlikely.
I think the only way to get picket lines around arthouses in the US is to involve Jesus in some way. Or Michael Moore.
i've always thought cineaste was one of those "artier than thou" types who throw around names and styles as though they were looking down their nose at you. I think wells usually calls them ivory tower types.
But, after looking it up, I found it is an actual magazine for the snooty! "America's Leading Magazine on the Art and Politics of the Cinema"...Check out their Writer's Guidelines. Apparently they take freelance reviews. Nick! Brian! Jay! Slim!...go forth! (I would not qualify because of my reckless use of obtuse Marxist terminology)
oh wow...I just looked at their website and the first featured article is entitled "Auteur de Force: Michael Haneke's "Cinema of Glaciation""
Is this the guy you're all talking about?
Makes sense. I just assumed it was some kind of convention. You know, you have cineaste in the fall and cinweste in the spring.
We dislike academic jargon, obtuse Marxist terminology, film buff trivia, trendy 'buzz' phrases, and show biz references.
Funny ... that doesn't sound like a magazine for the snooty.
Yeah, Michael Haneke made Caché, which I believe you are familiar with. I sort of assumed you were joking when you asked. Which, come to think of it, is a pretty snooty thing to do.
I have heard of Cache, but have never seen it nor do I know who was involved with it.
I was definitely tongue-in-cheek with the whole cineaste thing...I just really had no idea what you guys were talking about and wanted to make a funny.
Funny ... that doesn't sound like a magazine for the snooty.
I think the fact that they actually have to mention it says a lot. I just checked out a review on their site for a movie I had actually seen (Boogie Nights)...the sentence contruction is verbose to say the least:
"Packed with enough subplots and supporting players to fill a season’s worth of ER episodes, clothed in enough redeeming social value to escape imputations of overt sleaziness, and whipping out more than enough cinematic prestidigitation to hypnotize the crowd, this Altman-by-way-of-Scorsese-and-Tarantino pop melodrama is a delirious exercise in scopophilia, the peek-a-boo prurience at the core of cinema."
So...is it good or bad? Is scopophilia academic jargon or film buff trivia?
Makes sense. I just assumed it was some kind of convention. You know, you have cineaste in the fall and cinweste in the spring.
Look what you made him do, Olaf. Now Brian tried to make a funny.
I think if I had to choose between being called a cineaste or a movie geek, I'd go for geek, or nerd even. I'm obviously one of those, since I know Haneke. And make lists of films I like for respective years. I mean, it's indicative of something.
Sorry, Count. Thought I remembered you saying that you had watched Caché. Anyway, check it out sometime - I'm sure you'd find it very worthwhile.
I should further explain that Kino is a company that specializes in foreign DVDs here in the States. They put out a DVD of Haneke's Funny Games (which Haneke is remaking as an English-language film this year with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) that is apparently of much higher quality than the DVD of the same film previously released by a company called Fox Lorber.
Hope that helps.
think if I had to choose between being called a cineaste or a movie geek, I'd go for geek, or nerd even.
I'd say you were a nerd. On the whole, you've seen and know a lot more than me, but your tastes aren't snooty enough to be a real cineaste.
I, on the other hand, am just a guy who watches a lot of movies. I don't have enough of a knowledge base to qualify as anything more than that - almost everything I've seen is from the past 15 years or so.
I'd say you were a nerd.
I had to go find the definitions, just so I know what to call myself when the chicks ask about my hobbies.
According to the Meriam-Webster dictionary a nerd is someone who is ": an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits 'computer nerds'" If I'm to be as objective as one can be about these things, then let's see; I don't know about my sense of style, but my brother usually doesn't protest, and he is apparently considered stylish by women who pay a lot of money on clothes. I might not be attractive in a direct sense, but as far as I'm aware I'm not extremely unattractive either. Or so my mother tells me. Socially inept? Somewhat, maybe, but I do have several good friends who I go out for beers with every other weekend, does that count? And I don't usually trip over myself when talking to people, even if I apparently have a knack for pissing them off. And "slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits"? Ahahaha! Man, if you knew me... let's just say, I wish.
So I'm not sure about nerd.
A geek according to the M-W is,
1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
2 : a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked
3 : an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity 'computer geek'
Seriously, being objective here, this sounds more like me. Except for the biting the head off a chicken or snake thing, but who knows what was in those McNuggets I ate as a kid.
I, on the other hand, am just a guy who watches a lot of movies. I don't have enough of a knowledge base to qualify as anything more than that - almost everything I've seen is from the past 15 years or so.
Considering you watched over 130 films at the cinema last year, I think that's an understatement. I'm minor league compared to you, baby.
So you'd either rank as a cineaste, that is ": a devotee of motion pictures; also : MOVIEMAKER", or as an aficionado, aka fan, which is a ": a person who likes, knows about, and appreciates a usually fervently pursued interest or activity : DEVOTEE 'aficionados of the bullfight' 'movie aficionados'".
I think aficionado fits you best.
Good points, all, but I'm not sure how much you can rely on dictionary definitions for these things.
It seems to me that the definitions you quoted for 'geek' and 'nerd' are flipped from how they're actually used. Maybe that's just my experience.
Considering you watched over 130 films at the cinema last year, I think that's an understatement. I'm minor league compared to you, baby.
Perhaps, but we're talking 145 movies in theaters and maybe 15-20 (if that) that I watched for the first time on DVD. I only see a lot of movies in theatres because it's a personal preference; I don't think it really matters how they're viewed other than that. And I suspect that when we add DVDs and, uh, other means of home viewing, your total would be pretty close to mine, if not surpassing.
I think aficionado fits you best.
Hmm, for some reason I associate the word 'aficionado' with this magazine, so hard to say if I agree or not.
I'm not sure how much you can rely on dictionary definitions for these things.
At first I was ready to scoff at this, but on second thought, the popular uses being the ones that everyone uses, i.e. therefore in the end right ones, this might be true.
But I qualify nerds as people with glasses and pimples. Which I have, sometimes. Fuck.
I suspect that when we add DVDs and, uh, other means of home viewing, your total would be pretty close to mine, if not surpassing.
That might have been true during the Poets Corner days, which were admittedly strange times for me personally, but less true now. These days I'm lucky if I squeeze in one or two a week. Which still gets me up close to a hundred, perhaps, annually. But back then it was like one or two a day. Thereof my immense knowledge of film, and less than spectacular academic achievements.
Merriam-Webster orders definitions by age rather than popularity. There's a famous example (which I cannot recall) of a common word that M-W gives an almost archaic and seemingly obsolete definition first. And that's one reason I prefer the American Heritage dictionary to M-W.
Interesting, but there's no greater difference in the AH dictionary between geek and nerd, other than the carnival aspect for geek.
So we leave to the two great ones to sort us out.
According to the Oxford dictionary a nerd is "a person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious."
According to the Cambridge dictionary a nerd is "a person, especially a man, who is unattractive and awkward or socially embarrassing"
According to the Oxford dictionary a geek is "1 an unfashionable or socially inept person. 2 an obsessive enthusiast."
According to the Cambridge dictionary a geek is "a person, especially a man, who is boring and not fashionable"
I still think geek fits me best. Too bad there's no word for geek in Swedish other than nerd ("nörd").
I thought the key difference, completely unreflected in these definitions, was that geeks tended to be thin and perhaps taller than average, though in an almost deformed way (as in "pencil-necked geek," which is getting back to the carnival performer defintion). And if you could not be classified as a geek, then you were a nerd.
And if you could not be classified as a geek, then you were a nerd.
So most people are nerds? *Nelson "ha-ha!"*
Teasing.
But, seriously, those sound like high-school spun constructions of the words. I want proper definitions, that I can use outside of that milieu.
Well, I think they are mostly high-spun constructions.
But getting back to your preference for geek fitting you best--yeah, it seems more fitting that a Swedish palace guard could be a geek. I don't think they would allow nerds in that position. ;-)
high-spun? Oops, I meant high-school spun. I have this awful problem where I can think way faster than I type, so that I'm rewriting in my head ahead of my hands typing, and sometimes my hands munge stuff from two or three drafts ago....
it seems more fitting that a Swedish palace guard could be a geek.
Those who work there come in all shapes and sizes. And that's about as far as I can talk about my work there without facing potential reprimands from my boss.
I have this awful problem where I can think way faster than I type
I wish I had that problem with my mouth.
A couple more things: in my experience nerd was some obsolete '50's slang that had fallen completely out of usage until revived by the '70's popular TV sitcom about the '50's, Happy Days. It has persisted ever since. And my earliest memory of geek in its present usage was in the early '80's, and it was used to describe an enthusiastic chemical engineer, not a computer-obsessed person.
I wish I had that problem with my mouth.
If your mouth can't keep up with your mind that can lead to stuttering. Been there, outgrew that (luckily).
This reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skit that was a game-show parody, called "Nerd, Geek or Spaz." It was like To Tell the Truth, where three socially awkward teenagers came out, and cook kids had to identify them as a nerd, geek or spaz. I am a little of all three.
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