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johanlefourbe added 1 item to Ronny's Dutch Film Club list
chosen by Henk
(We have a new member in the club. Welcome to Marieke!)
Notes: As usual, I didn’t know anything about this movie before watching it but my other film club members made it pretty clear that it would heavy. Well, within 5 mins, I understood that it will be pretty rough and, indeed, at the end, we were all fairly traumatized about what we just saw. As far as I was concerned, it felt like a horror feature, the big difference was that it was based on something real which made all these images even more hard to swallow. Eventually, it was a strong reminder how we seem to live in some kind of parallel world where we worry about the costs of our groceries and about where we are going to spend our next fancy holidays when, not so far away, some really desperate immigrants are going through hell dreaming of a better life for themselves and very often for their very young kids. Something which was not handled in this movie was the fact that, if they ever managed to reach their destination (many won’t), they will be despised and very poorly treated by the local population which made me feel such a great shame. They did spend some time however to show how awful the job was for the military working at the border and it was a great way to show that, even if someone gets in direct contact with these refuges, they pretty much feel instantly different about them which shows, that deep down, we are all human. But they didn’t stop here, they also spent some time with some activists, just a handful of them, who tried to make a difference but I think the way this group was depicted was less effective. Indeed, it seemed that none of them had a daily job or some family to take care of and that they all could simply drop off everything to help these poor souls which seemed less realistic than the rest of this movie. Anyway, I’m still shaken up by the damned thing.
(Apr. 2024)7 months ago
johanlefourbe posted a review of Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
“To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it did sound intriguing, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a fascinating story with some very strong characters. On top of that, who would have expected that Wonder Woman came from such a co” read more
7 months ago
Fictional polyamorous characters
Relationship between three people
johanlefourbe posted a review of Survive the Game
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, since it was starring Bruce Willis, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, from all these awful direct-to-VOD garbage Willis has done towards the end of his career, it was probably one of the worst I have seen so far, I’m” read more
7 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to Top 10 worst movies 2021 list
Notes: From all these awful direct-to-VOD garbage Bruce Willis has done towards the end of his career, it was probably one of the worst I have seen so far. Seriously, pretty much nothing worked with the damned thing and my mind was wandering off every 2 mins but I’m pretty sure that I didn’t miss anything important. It was probably the cheapest and weakest story I have seen so far in this genre. I mean, it started with a really pathetic shoot-out, then the bad guys escaped to some farm and one cop (who didn’t have a cellphone to call for back-up for some reason) chased them and, well, it was pretty much it. Indeed, the whole thing was basically some kind of really pathetic cat-and-mouse game between these thugs and this cop who was helped out by a local ‘farmer’ (possibly the least convincing farmer I have ever seen). Another issue was how terrible the cast was this time around, even worse than usual. It was also pretty weird that the 3 ladies involved all had some really botched plastic surgery which was so distracting, probably even more than their abysmal acting abilities. It was even more bewildering to discover afterwards that one of these ladies was actually Donna D'Errico who was barely recognizable (and, frankly, rather ugly) with all this misguided plastic surgery done on her face. Concerning Bruce Willis, well, it is actually difficult to judge his work because you can be sure that the guy was already struggling with aphasia at the time. Basically, even though he seemed to have more screen time than usual, he was barely acting at all and looked confused most of the time which was actually rather heartbreaking to see.7 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to A Movie A Year (Part 2) list
7 months ago
TV shows: I'm watching, seen and abandonedjohanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies ... my own version (1920's) list
Notes: I have to admit that I had never heard of Ralph Steiner before but he was back then apparently a pioneer in experimental movies in the US. Eventually, this movie was actually his directorial debut and it would have quite an impact when it was released. Anyway, how much you will enjoy this movie will depend a lot on how much you like such abstract features. Well, I have always had a weak spot for the genre and, as far as I was concerned, the whole thing was quite beautiful and even rather mesmerizing to behold. At first, he gave us some rather basic shots of running water, which might seem too ordinary, but it actually worked for me and I think there was something rather soothing about these images. However, it became increasingly abstract and, at some point, what you were looking at was something really different than just water and the effect was quite otherworldly and fascinating to behold. 7 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies Chosen By Johanlefourbe list
Notes: I have to admit that I had never heard of Ralph Steiner before but he was back then apparently a pioneer in experimental movies in the US. Eventually, this movie was actually his directorial debut and it would have quite an impact when it was released. Anyway, how much you will enjoy this movie will depend a lot on how much you like such abstract features. Well, I have always had a weak spot for the genre and, as far as I was concerned, the whole thing was quite beautiful and even rather mesmerizing to behold. At first, he gave us some rather basic shots of running water, which might seem too ordinary, but it actually worked for me and I think there was something rather soothing about these images. However, it became increasingly abstract and, at some point, what you were looking at was something really different than just water and the effect was quite otherworldly and fascinating to behold. 7 months ago
johanlefourbe posted a review of H2O
“Recently, I have been focusing on older movies and since this one seemed to have a decent reputation and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I had never heard of Ralph Steiner before but he was back then apparently a pioneer in experimental” read more
7 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to Movies I can't wait to see list
7 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies ... my own version (1920's) list
Notes: It is probably Sergei Eisenstein's most obscure movie, it was also his last propaganda film as he would then focus after on historical epics for the rest of his career. Eventually, what was mostly interesting in this movie was that he focused this time only on the peasants living in the Soviet Union. Anyway, after watching all his movies, I came to the conclusion that they are so vastly different from your usual narrative features and it makes them therefore rather tricky to judge because you can’t really compare them to anything else that you have seen before and this movie was not an exception. Even if you might have some issues with the fact that it completely distorted what happened in Russia, I still think it is fascinating how Eisenstein pushed the propaganda genre to such heights that it became some kind of weird Art form. Indeed, there is no denying that some shots were quite beautiful, even though I’m not a huge fan of his excessive use of close-ups but even these shots were quite evocative. Eventually, they made some attempts to build up some kind of narrative (above all, you keep seeing this woman called Marfa) but, to be honest, the end-result did feel seriously disjointed. I mean, except for Marfa, it was rather difficult to keep track on who was who exactly and what was actually exactly going on. Finally, even though I’m well aware of all the atrocities that took place during the Soviet rule in Russia, I still think it was a beautiful theory and I actually think that this movie, as an utopian concept, was inspiring. 7 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies Chosen By Johanlefourbe list
Notes: It is probably Sergei Eisenstein's most obscure movie, it was also his last propaganda film as he would then focus after on historical epics for the rest of his career. Eventually, what was mostly interesting in this movie was that he focused this time only on the peasants living in the Soviet Union. Anyway, after watching all his movies, I came to the conclusion that they are so vastly different from your usual narrative features and it makes them therefore rather tricky to judge because you can’t really compare them to anything else that you have seen before and this movie was not an exception. Even if you might have some issues with the fact that it completely distorted what happened in Russia, I still think it is fascinating how Eisenstein pushed the propaganda genre to such heights that it became some kind of weird Art form. Indeed, there is no denying that some shots were quite beautiful, even though I’m not a huge fan of his excessive use of close-ups but even these shots were quite evocative. Eventually, they made some attempts to build up some kind of narrative (above all, you keep seeing this woman called Marfa) but, to be honest, the end-result did feel seriously disjointed. I mean, except for Marfa, it was rather difficult to keep track on who was who exactly and what was actually exactly going on. Finally, even though I’m well aware of all the atrocities that took place during the Soviet rule in Russia, I still think it was a beautiful theory and I actually think that this movie, as an utopian concept, was inspiring. 7 months ago
johanlefourbe posted a review of Old and New
“To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was the last movie directed by that Sergei Eisenstein I haven’t seen so far, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it is probably his most obscure movie, it was also his last propaganda film as he would then focu” read more
7 months ago
