<p>Okay, kind of like the excellent book thread on here – I’d really like to be able to chat on some recent movies I’ve seen with the brilliant CC parents.</p>
<p>Just saw Melancholia. Had seen an earlier Lars Von Trier decades earlier that just disgusted me (Breaking the Waves) and so watched this film sort of against my will. Have to say, it mesmerized me. I have been thinking on it for days. I thought Kirsten Dunst was spectacular. And Kiefer Sutherland was so good I didn’t even recognize him until the credits.</p>
<p>Has anyone here seen Melancholia? I think it’s about severe depression and how those people who have it are acutely conscious of the impersonal universe, the void, if you will. </p>
<p>Such a downer of a film yet I want to watch again . . .</p>
<p>Yes, I thought Melancholia was enthralling. Tremendous performances from the entire company, especially Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg. One critic described it as the Lars Von Trier film for people who don’t like Lars Von Trier films, which is an accurate description of me! Although I now want to see some of his other work. But his film before Melancholia, Antichrist, is NOT for the faint-hearted, and I am.</p>
<p>Von Trier is said to suffer from debilitating depression himself. People find misogyny in his films, but it’s interesting to me that 4 of the actresses he’s directed have won the top perfomance prize at Cannes - Bjork, Emily Watson, Gainsbourg, and Dunst. He knows how to give actresses exceptional roles.</p>
<p>I have a hard time finding current movies I really love. My favorite film last year was Midnight in Paris.</p>
<p>We liked “Jeff,Who Lives at Home” and “In Darkness”. In Darkness is a Polish film so all subtitles but the story is so gripping (a true story) that you completely forget that you’re reading the movie.</p>
<p>I’ve never had severe depression (that I was aware of) but have family who have definitely gone through it and I thought the whole wedding sequence caught perfectly the ups and downs, forwards and backs, but inexorable descent that goes on – and how the surrounding family and friends struggle with their anger and concern and sense of helplessness. </p>
<p>Am now going to look for Jeff, Who Lives at Home; Take Shelter, Midnight in Paris, and In Darkness. I’m just starting to give up entirely on the big budget movie mainstream. Although, Winter’s Bone, was good and got a lot of academy award nominations, oddly.</p>
<p>Two indies with Ryan Gosling where he is more appealing than in any of his big budget films are “Lars and the Real Girl” and “Half Nelson.”</p>
<p>I’d highly recommend them both. Half Nelson has the wonderful Anthony Mackie in it too.</p>
<p>It’s not new, but have you ever seen “Dirty Pretty Things”? Bad title, but amazing movie. It made us big fans of Chiwetel Ejiofor. Check out “Kinky Boots,” too…also with Chewey, and also much better than its title suggest.</p>
<p>An oldie but goodie some have never seen: “A Big Hand for the Little Lady.”</p>
<p>Movies you might have missed that I’d recommend after watching recently on Netflix streaming:</p>
<p>Cold Comfort Farm
You Kill Me
My Life So Far
You Can Count on Me
A Somewhat Gentle Man
Deep Water
Monsieur N.
Maze
Bill Cunningham New York
Undertaking Betty
After the Wedding
Adam’s Apples
Bluebeard
The Tenth Man
Enchanted April
Anthony Zimmer
Flame and Citron
Bottle Shock<br>
Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil
Ondine</p>
<p>These aren’t necessarily too new, but they feature good acting and interesting stories that wouldn’t necessarily appeal to a mass-market audience. They are often about people coping with life on the edge (the edge between success & failure, sanity and insanity, good & evil …)</p>
<p>I liked The Namesake and An Unfinished Life … though none of the movies I just mentioned can be considered “new” … hmm … new … I liked the documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey.</p>
<p>[LARS</a> AND THE REAL GIRL (official trailer) - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>ignatius, we watched “Being Elmo” recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. S1 loved Sesame Street when he was a toddler…learned all his ABC’s from S.S.</p>
<p>With H in the movie industry and myself a cinefile, up until two years ago we went to the movies at least once a week. Now we are lucky to go once a month. The reason being, really good movies are almost impossible to find.Funding for film production has dried up and studios only want to bet on highly commercial “sure thing” blockbusters. No wonder many of the “recent movies” listed above are over two years old. So depressing.</p>
<p>I just caught up to " A Separation" the Academy Award winning film from Iran that won “Best Foreign Film” as well as well as the Israeli nominated film, “Footnote”. I recommend both!</p>
<p>I recently saw “The Visitor” and found it very thought provoking. It is about a widowed, depressed, Connecticut econ professor who heads to New York to give a presentation and when he arrives at his city apartment he finds a young couple from Syria (I think) living there. He was very reserved at first, but ended up embracing the entire experience leading to personal growth and happiness.</p>
<p>Never realized that was Ryan Gosling in “Lars and the Real Girl”. Very entertaining movie. Also enjoyed “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” and “Great Exotic Marigold Hotel”. Also see “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. I did not enjoy “footnote”. Thought it was boring.</p>
<p>“Frozen River” starring Melissa Leo…two down on their luck women begin smuggling humans across the border to get by…highly recommend.</p>
<p>“The Way Back”…based on the book “Long Walk to Freedom”…the story of a group of men who escaped a Russian gulag during WWII and walked 1000 miles to freedom.</p>